Systematic Reviews
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2021. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Crit Care Med. Sep 9, 2021; 10(5): 260-277
Published online Sep 9, 2021. doi: 10.5492/wjccm.v10.i5.260
Neutrophil kinetics and function after major trauma: A systematic review
Liam DB Finlay, Andrew Conway Morris, Adam M Deane, Alexander JT Wood
Liam DB Finlay, Melbourne Medical School, University of Melbourne, Melbourne 3052, Victoria, Australia
Andrew Conway Morris, Department of Medicine, University of Cambridge, Cambridge 01223, United Kingdom
Adam M Deane, Alexander JT Wood, Centre for Integrated Critical Care, University of Melbourne, Parkville 3052, Victoria, Australia
Adam M Deane, Alexander JT Wood, Intensive Care Unit, Royal Melbourne Hospital, Parkville 3052, Victoria, Australia
Author contributions: Finlay LDB and Wood AJT screened and analysed included studies and wrote the manuscript; Conway Morris A and Deane AM assisted with critical review and editing of the manuscript; all authors have read and approved the final manuscript.
Supported by the Clinical Research Career Development Fellowship from the Wellcome Trust, No. WT 205214/Z/16/Z; the MRC Clinician Scientist Fellowship, No. MR/V006118/1; and the Career Development Fellowship from the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia, No. APP1141870.
Conflict-of-interest statement: There are no conflicts of interest to declare.
PRISMA 2009 Checklist statement: The guidelines of the PRISMA 2009 Statement have been adopted.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Alexander JT Wood, MBBS, PhD, Doctor, Intensive Care Unit, Royal Melbourne Hospital, Intensive Care Unit Offices Level 5, B Block Royal Melbourne Hospital 300 Grattan Street, Parkville 3052, Victoria, Australia. alex.wood1@unimelb.edu.au
Received: February 21, 2021
Peer-review started: February 21, 2021
First decision: May 13, 2021
Revised: June 22, 2021
Accepted: July 27, 2021
Article in press: July 27, 2021
Published online: September 9, 2021
Processing time: 200 Days and 3.3 Hours
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
Research background

Neutrophils play an important role in immune dysfunction after major traumatic injury and alterations in this cell type are associated with the development of complications including organ failure and secondary infection. The kinetics of neutrophil dysfunction in the context of trauma is not completely understood and may have important implications for therapy.

Research motivation

Developing a granular and nuanced understanding of neutrophil kinetics and changes after trauma is necessary if key associations with disease and therapeutic targets are to be identified.

Research objectives

This review aimed to provide an overview of established aspects of neutrophil immunophenotypes in trauma, with special attention to factors which may hold prognostic value.

Research methods

This study was a systematic review of the PubMed, Ovid Medline and Embase databases for all papers on neutrophil kinetics or function after major trauma (injury severity score > 12) in adults (≥ 18 years) since 1990.

Research results

Key findings include a notable increase in immature (CD16dim/CD62Lbright) neutrophils poorly responsive to subsequent bacterial stimuli which may confer susceptibility to bacteraemia. Highly inflammatory neutrophils which express adhesion markers and chemoattractant receptors such as CD11b and CXCR2 extravasate into end organs where they may damage host tissues and cause organ dysfunction.

Research conclusions

Neutrophil dysfunction after major trauma is complex and changes over time. Several stereotyped changes have been observed in multiple studies, as discussed above. Immunophenotyping of multiple cell types combined with clinical and laboratory data may yield endotypes likely to respond to different therapies.

Research perspectives

Areas of ongoing research include integration of multiple markers of immune dysfunction, enrichment strategies for clinical trials of immunomodulatory agents and the assessment of live cells in tissues rather than the circulation.