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The review, published in Nature Reviews Immunology, connects decades of cellular and molecular studies to unravel the biological significance and underlying mechanisms of the neutrophil nucleus.
Neutrophils, the most abundant white blood cells in the human body, are essential components of the immune system, rapidly migrating to sites of infection and inflammation to destroy pathogens. A distinct feature of the mature neutrophil is its nucleus, divided into three or four lobes connected by thin filaments. The shape was first described as early as 1900, but its purpose has remained largely unknown.
Dr Erinke van Grinsven, Dr Ananda Mukherjee and Professor Irina Udalova from the Kennedy Institute systematically reviewed the latest evidence to explore why neutrophil nuclei are segmented and how this structure might contribute to their specialised roles.
Commenting on the research in this area Erinke said: ‘Scientists have pondered the segmented shape of the neutrophil for years but it’s only now that we begin to understand its purpose. We and others found that along with change of nuclear morphology as the neutrophil develops, there are coordinated changes in how the DNA is organised, which genes are active, and how the nuclear envelope is structured. It’s this process that prepares neutrophils for their key task of rapid migration through tight tissue spaces during the immune response to fight inflammation.’