Effects of neutrophil fate on inflammation.

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION: Neutrophils are important participants in the innate immune response. They rapidly and efficiently identify and clear infectious agents by expressing large numbers of membrane receptors. Upon tissue injury or pathogen invasion, neutrophils are the first immune cells to reach the site of injury and participate in the inflammatory response. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A thorough search on PubMed related to neutrophil death or clearance pathways was performed. CONCLUSION: Inflammatory response and tissue damage can be aggravated when neutrophils are not removed rapidly from the site of injury. Recent studies have shown that neutrophils can be cleared through a variety of pathways, including non-inflammatory and inflammatory death, as well as reverse migration. Non-inflammatory death pathways include apoptosis and autophagy. Inflammatory death pathways include necroptosis, pyroptosis and NETosis. This review highlights the basic properties of neutrophils and the impact of their clearance pathways on the inflammatory response.