A study from scientists at Queen Mary, University of London,
sheds new light on why people who experience serious trauma or
go through major surgery, can suffer organ damage in parts of
the body which are seemingly unconnected to the injury. This is
normally a one-way journey but researchers were surprised to
find that, in some cases, this process can go into reverse, with
rogue super-activated neutrophils, re-entering the blood stream
and causing damage to other parts of the body. The researchers
used a cutting edge imaging technique which allowed them to
watch the movement of neutrophils, in three dimensions and in
real time in mice. As they expected the neutrophils moved out of
blood vessels and into tissues to tackle injury or infection and
they showed that his process was being controlled by a protein
on the surface of the blood vessels called JAM-C. However, when
they temporarily blocked the blood vessels, mimicking the trauma
experienced by patients undergoing major surgery, JAM-C was lost
from the blo