Leukocyte glutathione peroxidase deficiency in a male patient with chronic granulomatous disease

A male child with chronic granulomatous disease is described in whom glutathione peroxidase deficiency of leukocytes was identified. Stability and activity of G-6-PD and activity of NADPH oxidase were normal. The leukocytes of the parents showed intermediate activities of glutathione peroxidase, suggesting the possibility of autosomal recessive inheritance.

Defect in pyridine nucleotide dependent superoxide production by a particulate fraction from the granulocytes of patients with chronic granulomatous disease

Particulate fractions from normal human granulocytes preactivated with opsonized zymosan were found to catalyze superoxide production in the presence of reduced pyridine nucleotides. Similar preparations from three patients with X-linked chronic granulomatous disease produced no detectable superoxide. The failure to produce superoxide was not due to an inhibitor, since cell-free preparations from the patients' granulocytes had no effect on superoxide production by normal particles. Particles from the mothers of two of the patients produced superoxide at diminished rates; superoxide production by particles from the third mother was normal. These findings suggest that chronic granulomatous disease represents either a defect in a pyridine nucleotide-dependent superoxide-forming oxidase or a lesion in the apparatus responsible for activating the oxidase.

NADPH oxidase deficiency in X-linked chronic granulomatous disease

We measured the cyanide-insensitive pyridine nucleotide oxidase activity of fractionated resting and phagocytic neutrophils from 11 normal donors, 1 patient with hereditary deficiency of myeloperoxidase, and 7 patients with X-linked chronic granulomatous disease (CGD). When measured under optimal conditions (at pH 5.5 and in the presence of 0.5 mM Mn++), NADPH oxidase activity increased fourfold with phagocytosis and was six-fold higher than with NADH. Phagocytic neutrophils from patients with CGD were markedly deficient in NADPH oxidase activity.