Summary
Leukocytes recruitment to thrombi supports an intimate cellular interaction leading
to the enhancement of pro-coagulant functions and pro-inflammatory responses at site
of vascular injury. Recent observations of neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) formation
and its mutual reactions with platelet thrombi adds more clinical interest to the
growing body of knowledge in the field of platelet-leukocyte crosstalk. However, having
considered thrombus as a barrier between leukocytes and injured endothelium, the full
inflammatory roles of these cells during thrombosis is still ill defined. The most
recent observation of neutrophils migration into the thrombi is a phenomenon that
highlights the inflammatory functions of leukocytes at the site of injury. It has
been hypothesised that leukocytes migration might be associated with the conveyance
of highly reactive pro-inflammatory and/or procoagulant mediators to sites of vascular
injury. In addition, the evidence of neutrophils migration into arterial thrombi following
traumatic and ischaemia-reperfusion injury highlights the already described role of
these cells in atherosclerosis. Regardless of the mechanisms behind leukocyte migration,
whether these migrated cells benefit normal homeostasis by their involvement in wound
healing and vascular rebuilding or they increase unwilling inflammatory responses,
could be of interest for future researches that provide new insight into biological
importance of leukocyte recruitment to thrombi.
Keywords
Platelet-leukocyte crosstalk - NETs formation - intravascular leukocyte migration
- neutrophil induced atherosclerosis