Platelets in neutrophil recruitment to sites of inflammation

This review describes the essential roles of platelets in neutrophil recruitment from the bloodstream into inflamed and infected tissues, with a focus on recent findings.

Platelets are required for the recruitment of neutrophils to sites of inflammation and infection. They fulfil this role largely by enabling contacts of circulating neutrophils with the inflamed blood vessel wall prior to extravasation. Platelets promote both early stages of neutrophil recruitment (tethering, rolling, arrest, firm adhesion) and - as recent work has demonstrated - later stages (intravascular crawling and diapedesis). Recent studies have also begun to identify platelet-signaling pathways that can elicit the underlying interactions between platelets, neutrophils and vascular endothelial cells without stimulating concomitant platelet aggregation and thrombus formation. These pathways include Rho-guanine-nucleotide binding proteins and Rho-guanine-nucleotide exchange factors.

Recent findings have contributed to our burgeoning understanding of the platelet-dependent mechanisms that control neutrophil recruitment to sites of inflammation and have opened up new avenues of research aimed at increasing our knowledge of these mechanisms further. These insights might lead to the development of novel anti-inflammatory drugs that will be useful in a wide range of inflammatory diseases without causing immunodeficiency.