Role of peroxide in phagocytic killing of pneumococci.

Two mutants of a pneumococcus type I with diminished peroxide production were selected from a population of nitrosoguanidine-treated cells. White cells of normal patients killed the mutant pneumococci as well as the otherwise isogenic wild-type strain. In patients studied with chronic granulomatous disease, however, the peroxide-poor strain was killed far less well than the wild type. These studies indicate that the removal of a peroxide-generating system in the phagocytic vacuole specifically brings forth the killing defect in chronic granulomatous disease.