Journal of Immunology Research
Volume 2017 (2017), Article ID 6710278, 21 pages
https://doi.org/10.1155/2017/6710278
1Institute of Frontier Medical Science, Jilin University, Changchun 130021, China
2Department of Pathogen Biology, College of Basic Medical Sciences, Jilin University, Changchun 130021, China
3Department of Pharmacology, College of Basic Medical Sciences, Jilin University, Changchun 130021, China
Abstract
Respiratory diseases, always being a threat towards the health of people all over the world, are most tightly associated with immune system. Neutrophils serve as an important component of immune defense barrier linking innate and adaptive immunity. They participate in the clearance of exogenous pathogens and endogenous cell debris and play an essential role in the pathogenesis of many respiratory diseases. However, the pathological mechanism of neutrophils remains complex and obscure. The traditional roles of neutrophils in severe asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases (COPD), pneumonia, lung cancer, pulmonary fibrosis, bronchitis, and bronchiolitis had already been reviewed. With the development of scientific research, the involvement of neutrophils in respiratory diseases is being brought to light with emerging data on neutrophil subsets, trafficking, and cell death mechanism (e.g., NETosis, apoptosis) in diseases. We reviewed all these recent studies here to provide you with the latest advances about the role of neutrophils in respiratory diseases.