Phagocyte dioxygenation reactions yielding chemiluminescence: the maximum multiplicity and spin conservation rules relative to oxygen reactivity.

Abstract

Considering the diversity of microbes and microbial defenses, the microbicidal activities of phagocytes are astonishingly broad spectrum, lethal, and controlled. Microbicidal action is a consequence of the metabolic mechanisms whereby phagocytes alter the quantum state of O2, and in so doing, realize the thermodynamic potential for direct O2 reactivity. Chemiluminescence is an energy product of the resulting dioxygenation reactions and, under proper test conditions, can be employed for the detection and quantification of such reactions.2–4