Neutrophil
Neutrophils are the most common type of white blood cell, often called neutrophil granulocytes. They destroy bacteria (and other parasites like fungi) during an infection. They get to the site of an injury within minutes. They have tiny granules full of enzymes and peptides which chop up the bacteria after they have taken them in.
The process of taking in bacteria is called phagocytosis. The bacteria end up in a vacuole inside the neutrophil. The enzymes then get to work on destroying the bacteria. Neutrophils are an important part of the body's immune system. They are a kind of granulocyte, and have a short life-span of a couple of days.
Neutrophil Media
Neutrophil granulocyte migrates from the blood vessel to the matrix, secreting proteolytic enzymes to dissolve intercellular connections (to the improvement of its mobility) and envelop bacteria through phagocytosis.
Hypersegmented neutrophil.
Reference ranges for blood tests of white blood cells, comparing neutrophil amount (shown in pink) with that of other cells
Scanning electron micrograph of a neutrophil (yellow) phagocytosing anthrax bacilli (orange). Scale bar is 5 μm.
Micrograph showing several neutrophils during an acute inflammation
Activity of neutrophil-killer and neutrophil-cager in NBT test
Neutrophils are seen in a myocardial infarction at approximately 12–24 hours, as seen in this micrograph.
In stroke, they are beginning to infiltrate the infarcted brain after 6 to 8 hours.
A rapidly moving neutrophil can be seen taking up several conidia over an imaging time of 2 hours with one frame every 30 seconds.
A neutrophil can be seen here selectively taking up several Candida yeasts (fluorescently labeled in green) despite several contacts with Aspergillus fumigatus conidia (unlabeled, white/clear) in a 3-D collagen matrix. Imaging time was 2 hours with one frame every 30 seconds.
