Phagocytosis, the process through which innate immune cells engulf large particles, evolved from the eating mechanism of single-celled organisms, and involves binding to a target, enveloping it with a membrane and pinching the membrane off to form a vacuole within the cytosol called a phagosome. While the phagosomal membrane is derived from the plasma membrane, active protein and lipid sorting, as well as fusion with endomembranes during phagosome formation, transform the phagosome into a distinct organelle within the cell with degradative properties that allow the killing, neutralization and breakdown of the ingested material^1-3. This process, called phagosomal maturation, relies on the delivery of a host of proteolytic and microbicidal enzymes, including the nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH) oxidase which transfers electrons into phagosomes producing the strong oxidant O₂^– and its derivative reactive oxygen species (ROS) ^2,4.

The luminal pH of phagosomes has a profound influence on several events required for phagosome function. First, pH influences trafficking of endomembranes in general, as pH-dependent conformational changes of transmembrane trafficking regulators alters the recruitment of trafficking determinants such as Arfs, Rabs and vesicular coat-proteins, which in turn define which vesicles may fuse with phagosomes ^5-8. Second, the ionic composition of the phagosomal lumen is also transformed as phagosomes mature, and some ion transporters, such as the Na⁺/H⁺ exchanger or ClC family Cl^–/H⁺ antiporters, which promote phagocytic function, rely on H⁺ translocation ^9,10. Similarly, ROS production is intimately linked with phagosomal pH. ROS and its toxic oxidant byproducts have long been recognized as crucial for phagosomal killing in neutrophils ^4,11,12, and have been shown to play critical roles in other phagocytes including macrophages, dendritic cells (DCs) and amoeba ^13-16. The NADPH oxidase is an electrogenic enzyme that releases H⁺ in the cytosol as NADPH is consumed, and that requires the simultaneous transfer of H⁺ through companion HVCN1 channels alongside the transported electrons into the phagosomal lumen, in order to alleviate the massive depolarization that would otherwise lead to self-inhibition of the enzyme ^17-21. Finally, several proteolytic enzymes have optimal activity at different pH, so time-dependent phagosomal pH changes can influence which enzymes are active and when. The importance of phagosomal pH is highlighted by organisms such as Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Franciscella tularensis and Salmonella typherium that subvert phagocytic killing at least in part by altering phagosomal pH ^22-24.

In mammals the main phagocytes are neutrophils, macrophages and dendritic cells, and depending on cell type, time-dependent phagosomal pH changes can vary widely, and appear to play different roles. In macrophages a strong and rapid acidification mediated by the ATP-dependent proton pump vacuolar ATPase (V-ATPase) is one of the key factors mediating killing ^25-27, resembling the mechanisms present in amoeba that use phagocytosis as an eating mechanism ²⁸. In these cells activation of acidic proteases is thought to play a key role. In contrast, neutrophil killing relies more on ROS as well as HOCl produced by myeloperoxidase (MPO)¹¹, and the pH remains neutral or alkaline during the first 30 min acidifying only later ^29,30. Neutral pH has been suggested to favor the activity of oxidative proteases such as certain cathepsins. In DCs phagosomal pH is controversial, with some reporting acidification and others neutral or alkaline pH ^31,32, but ROS and pH may profoundly influence the ability of these cells to present antigens to T cells, one of their main functions ³³.

Importantly, hormones, chemokines and cytokines may produce signaling events that induce maturation and changes in phagocyte behavior, and in turn influence phagosomal pH ^34,35. Similarly, drugs, for example the antimalarial chloroquine, which is also considered for anti-cancer therapies ³⁶, may affect phagosomal pH and therefore immune outcomes. Thus, a variety of cell biologists, immunologists, microbiologists and drug developers may be interested in measuring phagosomal pH when seeking to understand the mechanisms underlying the effects of a particular genetic disruption, bioactive compound or microorganism on innate and adaptive immune responses.

Here we describe a method for measuring phagosomal pH in neutrophils that allowed us to show the importance of the HVCN1 channel in regulating neutrophil phagosomal pH ¹⁹. The method is based on the ratiometric property of fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC) whose fluorescence emission at 535 nm is pH sensitive when excited at 490 nm but not 440 nm ³⁷. When this dye is chemically coupled to a target, in this case zymosan, it can be followed using wide-field fluorescence microscopy, where cells are imaged as they phagocytose, and phagosomal pH changes are measured in real time as the phagosome matures. The actual pH is then gleaned by performing a calibration experiment where cells that have phagocytosed are exposed to solutions of different pH that contain the ionophores nigericin and monensin, that allow the rapid equilibration of the pH within phagosomes with the external solution. Ratio values are then compared to the known pH of solutions, a calibration curve is constructed by nonlinear regression and the resulting equation used to calculate pH from the ratio value.