"Neutropenia" refers to deficient numbers of neutrophils, the most abundant type of white blood cell. Two main forms of inherited neutropenia are cyclic neutropenia, in which neutrophil counts oscillate with a 21-day frequency, and severe congenital neutropenia, in which static neutropenia may evolve at times into leukemia. Mutations of ELA2, encoding the protease neutrophil elastase, can cause...

Human plasma-derived α1-antitrypsin (AAT) delivered by intravenous infusion is used as augmentation therapy in patients with emphysema who have a genetic mutation resulting in deficiency of AAT. Inhalation is an alternative route of administration that can potentially increase the efficacy and convenience of treatment. This study was conducted to determine whether delivery to the lungs, initial...

Neutrophil elastase (NE) activity is increased in many diseases. Other families of proteases, including cathepsins and matrix metalloproteases (MMPs), are also present at elevated levels in similar disease conditions. We postulated that NE could induce expression of cathepsins and MMPs in human macrophages. NE exposure resulted in macrophages, producing significantly greater amounts of cathepsi...

We identified diminished levels of the natural inhibitor of neutrophil elastase (NE), secretory leukocyte protease inhibitor (SLPI), in myeloid cells and plasma of patients with severe congenital neutropenia (CN). We further found that downregulation of SLPI in CD34(+) bone marrow (BM) hematopoietic progenitors from healthy individuals resulted in markedly reduced in vitro myeloid differentiati...

Targeting mechanisms of neutrophil elastase (NE) and other luminal proteins stored in myeloperoxidase (MPO)-positive secretory lysosomes/primary granules of neutrophils are unknown. These granules contain an integral membrane protein, CD63, with an adaptor protein-3-dependent granule delivery system. Therefore, we hypothesized that CD63 cooperates in granule delivery of the precursor of NE (pro...

The direct and specific detection of biomarkers is crucial as it can allow monitoring the state of a tissue or wound as well as the progression of the inflammatory process. Neutrophil elastase (NE) plays an important role in many biological processes. It is involved in inflammatory diseases and is enriched in inflamed tissues, in wound exudate, and in the sputum of cystic fibrosis patients. In ...

We examined the effect of the neutrophil chemoattractants interleukin (IL)-8 and N-formyl-methionyl-leucyl-phenylalanine on goblet cell (GC) degranulation in guinea pigs. Chemoattractants caused time-dependent neutrophil recruitment and GC degranulation in vivo. NPC 15669 (an inhibitor of leukocyte infiltration) prevented both responses, implicating neutrophils. ICI 200,355 (an inhibitor of neu...

Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is a unique form of glucose intolerance, in that it is transient and solely occurs in pregnancy. Pregnancies with GDM are at high risk of developing preeclampsia (PE), a leading cause of fetal and maternal morbidity or mortality. Since PE is associated with excessive activation of circulatory neutrophils and occurrence of neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs)...

Neutrophil-mediated injury to gut epithelium may lead to disruption of the epithelial barrier function with consequent organ dysfunction, but the mechanisms of this are incompletely characterized. Because the epithelial apical junctional complex, comprised of tight and adherens junctions, is responsible in part for this barrier function, we investigated the effects of neutrophil transmigration ...

In this study, we investigated the regulation and mechanism of IL-8 expression by A549 human lung carcinoma cells treated with neutrophil elastase (NE). NE-treated cells exhibited significantly higher IL-8 protein levels in culture media compared with cells treated with vehicle alone. Blocking of gene transcription with actinomycin D suggested that NE stimulated IL-8 synthesis via increased mRN...