iScience (Jul 2023)

Human neutrophils communicate remotely via calcium-dependent glutamate-induced glutamate release

  • Olga Kopach,
  • Sergyi Sylantyev,
  • Lucie Bard,
  • Piotr Michaluk,
  • Janosch P. Heller,
  • Ana Gutierrez del Arroyo,
  • Gareth L. Ackland,
  • Alexander V. Gourine,
  • Dmitri A. Rusakov

Journal volume & issue
Vol. 26, no. 7
p. 107236

Abstract

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Summary: Neutrophils are white blood cells that are critical to acute inflammatory and adaptive immune responses. Their swarming-pattern behavior is controlled by multiple cellular cascades involving calcium-dependent release of various signaling molecules. Previous studies have reported that neutrophils express glutamate receptors and can release glutamate but evidence of direct neutrophil-neutrophil communication has been elusive. Here, we hold semi-suspended cultured human neutrophils in patch-clamp whole-cell mode to find that calcium mobilization induced by stimulating one neutrophil can trigger an N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor-driven membrane current and calcium signal in neighboring neutrophils. We employ an enzymatic-based imaging assay to image, in real time, glutamate release from neutrophils induced by glutamate released from their neighbors. These observations provide direct evidence for a positive-feedback inter-neutrophil communication that could contribute to mechanisms regulating communal neutrophil behavior.

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