Clearing Things Up

It’s a classic case of false accusations. For years we’ve blamed neutrophils [immune cells that rush to fresh wounds, pictured in red swarming over an injury] for exacerbating inflammation – one of the body’s responses to injury. We were so sure they were doing more harm than good that several treatments even aim to block their action. But new research suggests we might not be giving them the credit they deserve. Watching neutrophil activity in real time in a wound on a mouse’s liver, the study found that they efficiently dismantle and clean up damaged material, clearing the way for new growth. And what’s more, once the job is done they don’t hang around, getting in the way like we thought. They remove themselves, taking the long trip back to where they came from: the bone marrow, meaning we may need to rethink our approach to these under-appreciated workers.

Written by Anthony Lewis

Anthony Lewis

Writer

Ant was the web editor in the early days of BPoD, and has since worked with the UK’s top science organisations as a writer and multimedia producer. He now splits his time between freelance work and managing multimedia at The Lancet.

Website

• Image from work by Jing Wang and Mokarram Hossain, and colleagues
• Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada
• Image reprinted with permission from the AAAS - the American Association for the Advancement of Science
• Published in Science, October 2017