Inflammation is one of the crucial processes of innate immunity that alerts the immune

system and recruits the needed cells, clears the damaged area, and then sets the stage

for subsequent tissue repair or regeneration. Despite the importance of inflammation to

immunity and the role of chronic inflammation in many common pathologies, we have

only begun to gain a basic understanding of the major events that initiate, regulate, and

inhibit the process.

Although we have known that neutrophils are among the first cells to arrive on the scene

of an inflammatory response, we have only recently begun to understand the important

role that these cells play in the process. It was discovered in the mid-2000s that

neutrophils form structures dubbed neutrophil extracellular traps, or NETS, when

activated in an inflammatory response. Briefly, what are NETS, what is in them, and what

purpose do they serve in inflammation and immunity? What are a few of the major

pathologies that NETs have been implicated in?