Casting NETs for microbes

Even death doesn't stop a neutrophil from battling pathogens, as Fuchs et al. report on page 231. The infection-fighting cells often launch a neutrophil extracellular trap (NET), a mesh of DNA and enzymes that snares and kills bacteria and fungi. The authors show that NET release involves a unique type of cellular self-sacrifice and depends on reactive oxygen species (ROS).

The standard way for neutrophils to kill microbes is by devouring them. The scientists first described the cells' alternative mechanism for slaying pathogens in 2004. NETs crop up in infections such as appendicitis and pneumonia.

Now, the researchers have determined that cells perish while releasing NETs, but that NET formation differs from other types of cell death such as apoptosis or programmed cell suicide. In NET-making cells but not apoptotic cells, the nuclear membrane rips...