Cytochrome b-245 and its involvement in the molecular pathology of chronic granulomatous disease

Abstract

Cytochrome b-245 is an integral, and probably the terminal, component of the microbicidal oxidase electron transport chain of phagocytic cells. Current knowledge of the biochemistry and cell and molecular biology of this molecule is described. The molecular basis of chronic granulomatous disease, in which defective electron transport down this chain predisposes to infection and impaired digestion by phagocytes, is explained in terms of anomalies of the cytochrome b and related molecules.