Neutrophilic inflammation: "don't you go to pieces on me!".

N eutrophilic infiltration is a phenomenon observed even in the healthy lung. However, increased infiltration occurs in many acute and chronic lung diseases and although necessary as part of the lung’s secondary defence systems, infiltration has been implicated in pathogenic processes leading to the tissue damage associated with many diseases. Not only do the neutrophil contents possess the ability to damage tissues, they may also generate chemotactic factors with the potential to amplify leukocyte infiltration [1– 3].