An unappreciated role for neutrophil-DC hybrids in immunity to invasive fungal infections.

ABSTRACT: Neutrophils are classically defined as terminally differentiated, short-lived cells; however, neutrophils can be long-lived with phenotypic plasticity. During inflammation, a subset of neutrophils transdifferentiate into a population called neutrophil-DC hybrids (PMN-DCs) having properties of both neutrophils and dendritic cells. While these cells ubiquitously appear during inflammation, the role of PMN-DCs in disease remains poorly understood. We observed the differentiation of PMN-DCs in pre-clinical murine models of fungal infection: blastomycosis, aspergillosis and candidiasis. Using reporter strains of fungal viability, we found that PMN-DCs associate with fungal cells and kill them more efficiently than undifferentiated canonical neutrophils. During pulmonary blastomycosis, PMN-DCs c

SUBMITTER: Fites JS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5983859 | biostudies-literature | 2018 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature