RATIONALE Intravascular neutrophil recruitment and activation are key pathogenic factors that contribute to vascular injury. Intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) has been shown to have a beneficial effect in systemic inflammatory disorders; however, the mechanisms underlying IVIG's inhibitory effect on neutrophil recruitment and activation are not understood. OBJECTIVE We studied the mechanisms ...

Healthy blood neutrophils are functionally quiescent in the bloodstream, have a short lifespan, and exit the circulation to carry out innate immune functions, or undergo rapid apoptosis and macrophage-mediated clearance to mitigate host tissue damage. Limitation of unnecessary intravascular neutrophil activation is also important to prevent serious inflammatory pathologies. Because neutrophils ...

There is growing evidence that neutrophils influence host resistance during influenza virus infection; however, factors that regulate neutrophil migration to the lung during viral infection are unclear. Activation of the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) by the pollutant 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD or dioxin) results in an increased number of neutrophils in the lung after influenza ...

Cigarette smoking is known to contribute to inflammatory diseases of the respiratory tract by promoting recruitment of inflammatory-immune cells such as neutrophils and perhaps by altering neutrophil functional properties. We investigated whether acrolein, a toxic unsaturated aldehyde found in cigarette smoke, could directly affect neutrophil function. Exposure of freshly isolated human neutrop...

Purinergic signaling, which utilizes nucleotides (particularly ATP) and adenosine as transmitter molecules, plays an essential role in immune system. In the extracellular compartment, ATP predominantly functions as a pro-inflammatory molecule through activation of P2 receptors, whereas adenosine mostly functions as an anti-inflammatory molecule through activation of P1 receptors. Neutrophils ar...

BACKGROUND After activation, platelets adhere to neutrophils via P-selectin and beta2-integrin. The molecular mechanisms and adhesion events in whole blood exposed to venous levels of hydrodynamic shear in the absence of exogenous activation remain unknown. METHODS AND RESULTS Whole blood was sheared at approximately 100 s(-1). The kinetics of neutrophil-platelet adhesion and neutrophil aggre...

OBJECTIVE To examine early leucocyte responses and neutrophil activation in acute myocardial infarction treated by streptokinase and to relate the findings to coronary recanalisation and indices of myocardial damage in order to provide further information about the role of neutrophils in the evolution of injury. DESIGN Group analysis of paired blood samples, obtained before streptokinase trea...