Comments on: When Neutrophils Attack

By: DAMPs and PAMPs: The enemy within | Mystery Rays from Outer Space

DAMPs and PAMPs: The enemy within | Mystery Rays from Outer Space — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 10:17:39 +0000

[...] to this other movie I posted a while ago, which shows neutrophils in a mouse’s ear, being attracted to areas of [...]

By: Neutrophil attack

Neutrophil attack — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 23:45:50 +0000

[...] Comment on blog post and ask blog author question about how neutrophils are attracted to the beads. Get a response. Make my own blog post about the discovery. Reflect on the impact of the Web on science. [...]

By: Robert

Robert — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 01:36:01 +0000

Hey, nice video. Was really interesting. It would be even better with sound though eh? ;)

By: iayork

iayork — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 04:12:24 +0000

But there’s no sound. I want to *hear* them.

So what are you imagining? I hear tiny hoofbeats, but I could also imagine yips and whoops, snarls and growls, or several other sound effects.

By: rpg

rpg — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 03:41:44 +0000

Woo! That’s bloody cool, isn’t it? Thanks.

But there’s no sound. I want to *hear* them.

By: Neutrophil attack at Bench Press

Neutrophil attack at Bench Press — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 23:31:40 +0000

[...] the Web: Read the paper online, Read a blog post on said paper (from science blog Mystery Rays from Outer Space). Watch this video of neutrophils (a type of white [...]

By: iayork

iayork — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 22:02:10 +0000

It’s an excellent question. The neutrophils are not really attracted to the beads, but rather to the site of tissue damage from the needle that injected them — the beads are really a marker of the needle site. Similarly, the neutrophils were attracted to the sites of sandfly bites whether or not the bites injected in Leishmania. From the paper: ” … the initial inflammatory response to sand fly bite or needle-induced tissue damage drives the robust neutrophilic recruitment observed in these studies.”

What is it about tissue damage that attracts the neutrophils? There are several components released by damaged cells that act as innate immune triggers, including HMGB1 and uric acid (I’ve talked about both of them earlier). There may be other, as yet unidentified, factors, and I don’t think anyone has a solid idea of which is most important, or if it’s a combination.

By: Ben

Ben — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 21:52:09 +0000

It’s been a while since I’ve taken immunology so this may be a “dumb” question, but what attracts the neutrophils to the artificial beads? Recognition of PAMPs driving a strong response to L. major makes sense to me, but how do the neutrophils recognize random matter as foreign? Do the neutrophils respond to KIRs?