Neutrophils play a very key role in the human immune defense against pathogenic infections. The predominant players in this role during the activation of neutrophils are the release of cytotoxic agents stored in the granules and secretory vesicles and the massive production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) initiated by the enzyme NADPH oxidase. In addition, in living organisms, cells are continuously exposed to endogenous (inflammations, elevated neutrophil presence in the vicinity) and exogenous ROS at low and moderate levels (travels by plane, radiotherapy, space irradiation, blood banking, etc.). To study these effects, we used ROS induced by gamma radiation from low (0.2 Gy) to high (25 Gy) dose levels on PLB-985 cells from a myeloid cell line differentiated to neutrophil-like cells that are considered a good alternative to neutrophils. We determined a much longer lifetime of PLB-985 cells than that of neutrophils, which, as expected, decreased by increasing the irradiation dose. In the absence of any secondary stimulus, a very low production of ROS is detected with no significant difference between irradiated and non-irradiated cells. However, in phagocytosing cells, irradiation doses above 2 Gy enhanced oxidative burst in PLB-985 cells. Whatever the irradiation dose, NADPH oxidase devoid of its cytosolic regulatory units is observed at the plasma membrane in irradiated PLB-985 cells. This result is different from that observed for irradiated neutrophils in which irradiation also induced a translocation of regulatory subunits suggesting that the signal transduction mechanism or pathway operate differently in both cells.
Keywords: NADPH oxidase; PLB-985 cells; ROS; cytochrome b558; ionizing radiation; neutrophils; oxidative stress.