Activation of human peripheral blood neutrophils by pathogens or by phorbol myristate acetate (PMA), fMLP, or myeloid growth factors generates a respiratory burst in which superoxide production plays an important role in killing invading microorganisms. Although the increased energy demands of activated neutrophils would be expected to be associated with increased glucose uptake and utilization, previous studies have shown that PMA inhibits 2-deoxyglucose (2-DOG) uptake. In this study, we show that PMA activation of neutrophils, isolated by methods not involving hypotonic lysis, increases the rate of 2-DOG uptake and results in a 1.6-fold to 2.1-fold increase in transporter affinity for glucose without changing V_max. Increased transporter affinity in response to PMA was also observed with 3-O-methyglucose, which is not phosphorylated, and inclusion of glucose in the activation medium further increased respiratory burst activity. Increased 2-DOG uptake and increased transporter affinity for glucose were also observed with the peptide activator, fMLP, and with granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF). The protein kinase C (PKC) inhibitor, calphostin C, and the tyrosine kinase inhibitor, genistein, inhibited both PMA- and fMLP-stimulated 2-DOG uptake. In contrast, genistein inhibited fMLP-induced superoxide production, but had little effect on the PMA-induced response, while staurosporine differentially inhibited PMA-induced superoxide production. These results show that neutrophil activation involves increased glucose transport and intrinsic activation of glucose transporter molecules. Both tyrosine kinases and PKC are implicated in the activation process.