Proinflammatory stimuli enhance phagocytosis of apoptotic cells by neutrophil granulocytes

Lars Hellberg, Sabrina Fuchs, Christoph Gericke, Arup Sarkar, Martina Behnen, Werner Solbach, Tamás Laskay*

*Corresponding author for this work
    9 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Recently, we have reported that, in addition to macrophages, also neutrophil granulocytes can phagocytose apoptotic neutrophils. Based on this finding, we hypothesized that cannibalistic neutrophils at sites of acute infection/inflammation play a major role in the clearance of apoptotic neutrophils. Since at sites of infection/inflammation neutrophils are exposed to microbial constituents and proinflammatory cytokines, in the present study we analyzed the effect of TLR-ligands and cytokines on the ability of neutrophils to phagocytose apoptotic cells in vitro. We observed that exposure to ligands of TLR2 (Malp2, Pam3CSK4), TLR4 (LPS), TLR7/TLR8 (R848), and TLR9 (ODN 2006) led to increased phagocytosis of apoptotic cells by neutrophils. In addition, proinflammatory cytokines such as TNF and GM-CSF strongly enhanced the uptake of apoptotic cells by neutrophils. These results support the hypothesis that neutrophils acquire the ability to phagocytose apoptotic cells at sites of acute infection/inflammation and thereby can contribute to the resolution of inflammation.

    Original languageEnglish
    JournalTheScientificWorldJournal
    Volume11
    Pages (from-to)2230-2236
    Number of pages7
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 01.12.2011

    Research Areas and Centers

    • Academic Focus: Center for Infection and Inflammation Research (ZIEL)

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