ABOVE: A collection of human gallstones
ARMGARD AND MARTIN HERRMANN
Gallstones, those hard masses of excess cholesterol and calcium crystals lodged in the gallbladder that can cause considerable pain, may have immune cells called neutrophils as their partners in crime. Researchers have found that gallstones also contain neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs)—sticky clumps of DNA and protein—that hold the crystals together like a spider web, they report August 15 in Immunity. Additionally, using molecules that inhibit the formation of these NETs, the scientists prevented the formation and growth of gallstones in mice, suggesting they could be a target for pharmaceutical interventions.
“This group has been highlighting aggregated NETs in various conditions,” Paul Kubes, an immunologist at the University of Calgary who was not involved in the study, tells The Scientist in an email. “But this is the first pathogenic role for these aggregated NETs.”
Another uninvolved researcher, David Wang, who studies gallstones ...
