Neutrophils – unusual suspects in cardiometabolic disease

Prof. Dr. Dr. med. Oliver Söhnlein, Universität Münster

Neutrophils, the most abundant white blood cells in humans, have traditionally been looked upon as as bystanders or biomarkers of cardiovascular disease. However, studies over the past 15 years have consistently demonstrated the important functions of neutrophils during cardiometabolic inflammation. I will here discuss how classical and novel risk factors regulate neutrophil production and function. Furthermore, I will dissect our current know- ledge of how neutrophils contribute to the different stages of atherosclerotic lesion formation, including atherogenesis, plaque destabilization and plaque erosion. Finally, I will emphasize how detailed knowledge of neutrophil functions in cardiovascular homeostasis and disease can be used to generate therapeutic strategies to target neutrophil numbers, functional status and effector mechanisms.

Oliver Söhnlein is Professor of Regulatory Mechanisms of Inflammation and Director of the Institute of Experimental Pathology at the University of Münster, Germany. He received his M.D. in 2004 from the Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen, Germany, and his Ph.D. in 2008 from the Karolinska Institutet, Sweden. After his return from Sweden, he was group leader at the RWTH in Aachen before he continued his studies as group leader in Amster- dam and as Professor for Vascular Immunotherapy at the LMU in Munich. He served as European Coordinator of a transatlantic Leducq Network on Clonal Hematopoiesis and is speaker of the DFG-funded collaborative research center TRR332 ‘Neutrophils: origin, fate & function’. Oliver Soehnlein’s research focuses on understanding the role of neutrophils in vascular inflammation. Based on this understanding he aims at designing tailored therapeutic approaches.