Abstract
Disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC) is a frequent complication of sepsis. During the course of infections, platelets and coagulation factors can become activated inside blood vessels. Thrombus formation inside blood vessels is generally considered to be harmful because it compromises the blood supply to organs. However, recent studies have suggested that thrombosis during the early stage of infections plays a major physiological role in immune defense. This defensive role of thrombosis is now referred to as immunothrombosis. DIC might be an advanced stage of immunothrombosis wherein the immune system is no longer able to restrict pathogen spreading, and immunothrombosis becomes overwhelmed. In this stage, uncontrolled immunothrombosis causes multiple organ dysfunction syndrome and could be detrimental to the host. In this review, we focus on neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs), an important player in immunothrombosis, and extracellular histones, key components of NETs, and discuss how extracellular histones impact the conditions of septic DIC.
