1. Figure 1 The release of DNA from dead and dying cells
Figure 1 | The release of DNA from dead and dying cells. Any cell type can undergo apoptosis or necrosis, but NETosis involves only immune cells, most prominently neutrophils. a | In apoptosis, the cell shrinks and the nucleus condenses. DNA undergoes cleavage by nucleases, resulting in a ladder of low-molecular-weight fragments corresponding to multiples of the length of DNA in the nucleosome. Apoptosis results in extracellular DNA in the form of apoptotic bodies (collapsed remains of cells or large fragments thereof), membrane-bound microparticles or free DNA. b | In necrosis, as the cell lyses, high-molecular-weight DNA is released in the absence of intracellular cleavage. c | In NETosis of neutrophils, DNA mixes with enzymes in neutrophil granules and is then extruded in the form of a mesh or neutrophil extracellular trap (NET) in which DNA is coated with anti-bacterial proteins such as myeloperoxidase and neutrophil elastase.
Pisetsky, D. S. (2015) Anti-DNA antibodies — quintessential biomarkers of SLE
Nat. Rev. Rheumatol. doi: /nrrheum