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The clinical value of neutrophil extracellular traps

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Abstract

Neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) have recently been discovered as a central part of antimicrobial innate immunity. In the meanwhile, evidence accumulated that NETs are also generated upon non-infectious stimuli in various clinical settings. In acute or chronic inflammatory disorders aberrantly enhanced NET formation and/or decreased NET degradation seems to correlate with disease outcome. This review summarizes current knowledge about the relation of NETs in a broad spectrum of clinical settings. Specifically, we focus on the importance of NETs as a predictive marker in severely ill patients and further, we speculate about the potential pathophysiology of NETs.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Julia Quathamer for the fluorescence staining and photographs of NETs and Coelestina Scholz for the graphics depicted in Fig. 2. We appreciated the critical review of the manuscript by Dr Vidya Prasad and the support of Rose Garden.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Trauma and Hand Surgery, Heinrich-Heine University, Moorenstr. 5, 40225, Düsseldorf, Germany

    Tim Lögters, Stefan Margraf, Jens Altrichter, Joachim Windolf & Martin Scholz

  2. Institute for Medical Virology, Johann Wolfgang Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main, Germany

    Jindrich Cinatl

  3. Division of Nephrology, Department of Internal Medicine, University of Rostock, Rostock, Germany

    Steffen Mitzner

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  1. Tim Lögters
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  2. Stefan Margraf
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  6. Joachim Windolf
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  7. Martin Scholz
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Correspondence to Martin Scholz.

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Lögters, T., Margraf, S., Altrichter, J. et al. The clinical value of neutrophil extracellular traps. Med Microbiol Immunol 198, 211–219 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00430-009-0121-x

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