JEM: Researchers have found new particles in the blood of patients with sepsis

December 8, 2020 // -- Researchers at the La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI) have found unprecedented particles in the blood of patients with sepsis.
scientists are the first to find these particles, known as elongated neutral granulocyte-derived structures (ENDS), that break down immune cells and change shape as they pass through the body.
study, published in the December 4, 2020 issue of Journal of Research Medicine, shows the importance of understanding how immune cells change during disease.
,LJI Professor Klaus Ley, senior author of the study (Photo: www.pixabay.com), said: "ENDS is not normal - they cannot be detected in healthy people or mice.
BUTENDS is high in sepsis, and I wouldn't be surprised if they are high in other inflammatory diseases.
" neophils are immune cells that enter tissue through blood flow and fight infection.
experiment, Marki noticed that slender objects from the source of neutral granulocytes stuck to the walls of blood vessels.
because the structure is not described in the scientific literature, the team named it ENDS.
to better understand these new objects, the LJI team developed a series of new technologies to study how ENDS is formed and degraded and tested in human and mouse plasma.
advanced imaging techniques, the LJI team found that as neophils glide and roll, the "rope"-like structures they form become longer and longer.
, the chain becomes only 150 nanometers (about 1/500 of the width of a human hair).
then breaks in the middle.
part of the tether remains in neutral granulocytes, but broken fragments flow freely through the blood.
researchers have shown that these ENDSs curl up on the walls of blood vessels until they become round.
ENDS may remain intact for a period of time, but not for a long time.
't have any life-sustaining cytocytostics inside.
, the researchers found that ENDS secretes molecules that stimulate inflammation.
compared to healthy subjects, the researchers showed that ENDS detection rates were about 100 times higher in patients with sepsis.
sepsis occurs when the immune system overreacts to infection by injecting dangerous chemicals into the body.
these chemicals not only fight infection, but can also cause organ damage when transmitted in the blood.
mortality rate for sepsis "shock" was 30 per cent.
hospitalization, sepsis is the most common cause of death.
" Ley and Marki are still unsure why sepsis patients develop ENDS.
to learn more, Marki wants to collect more patient samples to track the formation and frequency of ENDS.
said: "I wanted to study the blood from multiple points in time for each patient to see the dynamic characteristics of ENDS.
theory, ENDS could one day be used as a biomarker for early sepsis testing, but it is not currently detected in a clinical setting.
() Source: Researchers discover new particle in the blood of septic patients Original source: Alex Marki et al, "Elongated neutrophil-derived structures are blood-borne microparticles formed by rolling neutrophils when sepsis," Journal of Journal of Medicine (2020). DOI: 10.1084/jem.20200551。