Bioimaging of Chemotaxis / Migration and Adhesion for Transmigration of Neutrophils with Special Reference to Neutrophil Functions

Abstract

Functional analysis of neutrophils has been investigated using bioimaging techniques. Because neutrophils work with dynamic action as follows. Neutrophils circulate in blood to survey and recognize invasion from outside and play real innate immunity and host defense. When the neutrophils recognize an invader and/or the substances produced from it, the neutrophils are stimulated, adhere to the endothelium of the blood vessels, produce a chemotaxis response to the invader, and ingest the invader finally. In particular, the morphological changes and the production of such a large number of reactive molecules within a few minutes are observed following initial stimulation. Therefore, the rapid changes in the morphology and signal cascades have been investigated using cell biology, biochemical and molecular techniques, and imaging techniques that have recently been developed. This review describes the recent works on imaging of chemotaxis and transmigration.