The ability of staphylococcal two-component leukotoxins to induce an oxidative burst and/or to prime human polymorphonuclear cells (PMNs) was studied by using spectrofluorometry or flow cytometry. At sublytic concentrations, the HlgA-HlgB, HlgA-LukF-PV, LukS-PV-LukF-PV, and HlgC-LukF-PV combinations of leukotoxins, but not the LukS-PV-HlgB and HlgC-HlgB combinations, were able to induce H₂O₂ production similar to the H₂O₂ production induced by 1 μM N-formyl-Met-Leu-Phe (fMLP). In addition, when added at sublytic concentrations, all of the leukotoxin combinations primed PMNs for H₂O₂ production induced by fMLP. Leukotoxin activation was dependent on the presence of Ca²⁺ and was inhibited by wortmannin, an inhibitor of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase, but not by N-methyl-l-arginine, an inhibitor of NO generation, which eliminates the possibility that NO plays a role in the action of leukotoxins. At higher concentrations, all leukotoxins inhibited H₂O₂ production by PMNs activated by fMLP, phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA), or the leukotoxins themselves. This inhibition was not related to the pore formation induced by leukotoxins. Intracellular release of H₂O₂ induced by fMLP and PMA was not primed by leukotoxins but was inhibited. It seems that leukotoxin inhibition of H₂O₂ release is independent of pore formation but secondary to an intracellular event, as yet unknown, triggered by leukotoxins.