Fig. 2.

Effector functions of neutrophils. Once reaching the battle front, neutrophils adopt diverse mechanisms to destroy pathogens, such as phagocytosis, degranulation, and NETosis. In phagocytosis, the pathogen is ingested into phagocytic vacuoles called phagosomes which become phagolysosome upon maturation. Further in the phagolysosome, the pathogen is destroyed by the action of degrading enzymes. In degranulation, neutrophils release their toxic cargo, stored in the granule subsets. During NETosis, DNA fibers equipped with granule cargo are released in the form of neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) to entrap and kill the large microbes that cannot be ingested