All of us have an army of cells called neutrophils that are ready to take out any invaders, be it a bug in a wound or a virus in our lungs. The first line of defense for the immune system is called the neutrophils.
According to the University of Michigan Medical School Department of Pharmacology and Cell and Developmental Biology, Neutrophils are the fastest immune cells.
The rapid response to a site of invasion is possible through a chemical messaging system. Parent and her colleagues at the U-M Medical School and the U-M Life Sciences Institute have conducted new research on how these chemicals are created.
The neutrophils closest to the site sense chemicals released by the pathogens and then themselves release a different chemical called leukotriene B4 to bring more neutrophils to the area to eat, break down, or trap foreign material.
According to Parent, the environment outside of a cell is hostile, so the enzymes that make LTB4 are packaged inside little circular vesicles.
As the neutrophils migrate, they release their contents into the air and set off a relay that calls more immune cells.
The investigators describe a unique way in which exosomes are formed.
The surface of a neutrophil's nucleus is where the exosomes come from.
Parent said that as someone working on cell migration he never thought about the nucleus. The nucleus-derived exosomes are the very specific composition of the neutrophil nucleus.
Parent explains that the nucleus of a neutrophil is bendable and allows it to squeeze into infections. The nucleus is rich in ceramides, a type of lipids. Parent says that the components of LTB4 are housed in buds and released from the cell to create a chemical gradient.
Chronic inflammation can be caused by overexuberant neutrophils and can lead to conditions such as arthritis and asthma.
Parent said that understanding how neutrophils are called on opens avenues to potential drug targets.
More information: Subhash B. Arya et al, Ceramide-rich microdomains facilitate nuclear envelope budding for non-conventional exosome formation, Nature Cell Biology (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41556-022-00934-8 Journal information: Nature Cell Biology
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