Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Cardiol. Dec 26, 2015; 7(12): 829-842
Published online Dec 26, 2015. doi: 10.4330/wjc.v7.i12.829
Do neutrophil extracellular traps contribute to the heightened risk of thrombosis in inflammatory diseases?
Ashish N Rao, Nayef M Kazzaz, Jason S Knight
Ashish N Rao, Nayef M Kazzaz, Jason S Knight, Division of Rheumatology, Department of Internal Medicine, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-5680, United States
Author contributions: All authors participated in the identification of references and drafting of the manuscript; and all authors approved the final version of the manuscript.
Supported by NIH K08AR066569; and a career development award from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund (Knight JS); Kazzaz NM was supported by Security Forces Hospital Program, Ministry of Interior, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no conflicts of interest for this article.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Jason S Knight, MD, PhD, Division of Rheumatology, Department of Internal Medicine, University of Michigan Medical School, 1150 West Medical Center Drive, SPC 5680, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-5680, United States. jsknight@umich.edu
Telephone: +1-734-9363257 Fax: +1-734-7634151
Received: May 29, 2015
Peer-review started: June 2, 2015
First decision: August 14, 2015
Revised: September 3, 2015
Accepted: October 20, 2015
Article in press: October 27, 2015
Published online: December 26, 2015
Core Tip

Core tip: In order to capture and kill pathogens, neutrophils release webs of chromatin and antimicrobial proteins called neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs). These NETs are also emerging as important players in inflammatory and thrombotic disorders. In this review, we describe the mechanisms by which the various components of NETs promote thrombosis. Further, we highlight emerging evidence that NETs may play a particularly important role when thrombosis occurs in patients with systemic autoimmune diseases such as lupus, vasculitis, and antiphospholipid syndrome.