Published in Journal of Neuroinflammation. The Segal lab extends the alternatively activated neutrophil framework, established in their 2024 axon-regeneration study, to T cell-driven neuroinflammation in models relevant to multiple sclerosis.
In their 2024 Nature Immunology study, the Segal lab showed that bone marrow neutrophils polarized with IL-4 and G-CSF acquire alternative activation markers and promote axon regeneration after CNS injury. This new study extends the same framework to autoimmune neuroinflammation, asking whether alternatively activated neutrophils can also restrain T cell-driven CNS damage.
The work characterizes immunoregulatory functions of alternatively activated neutrophils in experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), a model of multiple sclerosis. Findings have implications for autologous myeloid-cell therapies in inflammatory CNS disease.
The Quantitative Imaging Group contributed histology guidance, imaging methods, and analysis to the study.
Alternatively activated neutrophils limit T cell-driven neuroinflammation. Atkinson JR, Bellinger C, Jerome AD, Munie Gardner A, Groover HK, Chen S, McVey Moffatt A, Sepeda JA, Dokiburra A, Hammond LA, Liu T, Webb A, Sas AR, Segal BM. Journal of Neuroinflammation. 2026.