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Updated: Jul 13, 2026

Neutrophil Extracellular Traps: How to Generate and Visualize Them
Published on: February 24, 2010
Neutrophil granules: a library of innate immunity proteins
Niels Borregaard1, Ole E Sørensen, Kim Theilgaard-Mönch
1The Granulocyte Research Laboratory, Department of Hematology, University of Copenhagen, Rigshospitalet, DK-2100, Denmark. borregaard@rh.dk
Abstract:
Gene expression profiling has revealed that circulating neutrophils rest between two major bursts of transcriptional and protein synthetic activities. The first occurs in the bone marrow. This equips the neutrophil with stocks of innate defense armory that are packaged into different granule subsets. The second burst occurs when the neutrophil exits circulation and migrates into tissues to find, capture and phagocytose microorganisms. This burst results in the synthesis and secretion of cytokines and chemokines that support resolution of inflammation and healing of damaged tissue. Gene expression profiling has revealed that neutrophils express a variety of innate immunity proteins, known previously only to be expressed in other cells. Likewise, it has become clear that some proteins previously thought to be specific to the neutrophil are expressed in epithelial cells during inflammation.
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