Adjusting Neutrophil Behavior to Enhance Stroke Recovery

An emerging theme in regenerative research is the importance of the innate immune system to the mechanisms of tissue maintenance, and researchers have so far found a number of ways in which the behavior of these immune cells might potentially be adjusted in order to enhance healing. The scientific community has made initial strides with macrophages and microglia, shifting the balance of pro-inflammatory versus pro-regenerative cells, and here some of the same high level themes are observed in the response to injury of the innate immune cells known as neutrophils. It matters greatly as to whether these immune cells turn up at the point of injury in the mode of defending against intruding pathogens, or in the mode of assisting with repair; they are capable of both, but individual cells tend to be focused only on one of these at a given time. White blood cells called neutrophils are like soldiers in your body that form in the bone marrow and at the first sign of microbial attack, head for the site of injury just as fast as they can to neutralize invading bacteria or fungi using an armament of chemical weapons. But when that injury is an intracerebral hemorrhage, which releases blood into the brain, neutrophils arrive at the point of battle only to discover that there's no infection to attack. Unless immediately removed from the brain by other immune cells, they actually cause damage and deploy an array of toxic chemicals into the brain that worsen injury. Now res...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs