Recent progress on the roles of DAMP and NET in organ ischemia-reperfusion injury / 器官移植

Ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI) is a common pathophysiological phenomenon, secondary to multiple pathological processes, such as organ transplantation, acute kidney injury and myocardial infarction. IRI may significantly aggravate the severity of diseases and increase the fatality of patients. Aseptic inflammation is one of the critical mechanisms of IRI. Damage-associated molecular pattern (DAMP) is a pivotal substance, which mediates aseptic inflammation. After released into extracellular space, it could effectively activate the immune system, and initiate and maintain the inflammatory responses by binding with pattern recognition receptor (PRR). Neutrophil extracellular trap (NET) is a DNA-based network structure released by neutrophils during the process of inflammatory responses, which contains histones and multiple granular proteins. Recent studies have demonstrated that DAMP and NET may aggravate IRI via aseptic inflammation. In this article, relevant studies of DAMP, NET and their relationship in IRI were reviewed, which was of great significance for understanding the pathophysiological mechanism of IRI and studying the corresponding prevention and treatment strategies.

Progress of researches on the role of neutrophil extracellular traps in the immune responses against parasites / 中国血吸虫病防治杂志

Neutrophil extracellular trap (NET) is a type of bead-like, fibrous and reticular substances that is actively released by activated inflammatory neutrophils during the stage of infections or inflammatory responses. NET, which is composed of chromatin DNA and multiple intracellular protein components, may wrap pathogens to limit their diffusions. Meanwhile, NET may kill pathogens via a wide range of antibacterial proteins, which is considered as the third antibacterial mechanism of neutrophils, in addition to phagocytosis and degranulation. Recent studies have shown the involvement of NET in the immune response against parasitic infections. This review summarizes the advances of NETs in the immune responses against parasitic infections, so as to provide insights into the elucidation of the pathogenesis and development of therapeutics of parasitic diseases.

Neutrophils in Immunity

Neutrophils are the most abundant white blood cells in the peripheral blood and have long been recognized as the major phagocytes in acute infection by destroying extracellular pathogens. Although research on neutrophils hampered by intractability in the experiments, the newly discovered effector functions of neutrophils includes granular proteins, and cytokines, extracellular traps. With all effector mechanism neutrophils play a critical role in the pathogenesis of acute and chronic infection, autoimmunity and cancer.