RESEARCH ARTICLE Megakaryocyte emperipolesis mediates membrane transfer from intracytoplasmic neutrophils to platelets Pierre Cunin1, Rim Bouslama1, Kellie R Machlus2, Marta Martı´nez-Bonet1, Pui Y Lee1,3, Alexandra Wactor1, Nathan Nelson-Maney1, Allyn Morris1, Li Guo4, Andrew Weyrich4, Martha Sola-Visner5, Eric Boilard6, Joseph E Italiano2,7, Peter A Nigrovic1,3* 1Department of Medicine, Division of Rheumatology, Immunology and Allergy, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, United States; 2Department of Medicine, Hematology Division, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, United States; 3Department of Medicine, Division of Immunology, Boston Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, United States; 4Program in Molecular Medicine and Department of Internal Medicine, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, United States; 5Department of Neonatology, Boston Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, United States; 6Centre de Recherche en Rhumatologie et Immunologie, Centre de Recherche du Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Que´bec, Faculte´ de Me´decine de l’Universite´ Laval, Que´bec, Canada; 7Vascular Biology Program, Department of Surgery, Boston Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, United States Abstract Bone marrow megakaryocytes engulf neutrophils in a phenomenon termed emperipolesis. We show here that emperipolesis is a dynamic process mediated actively by both lineages, in part through the b2-integrin/ICAM-1/ezrin pathway. Tethered neutrophils enter in membrane-bound vesicles before penetrating into the megakaryocyte cytoplasm. Intracytoplasmic neutrophils develop membrane contiguity with the demarcation membrane system, thereby *For correspondence:
[email protected] transferring membrane to the megakaryocyte and to daughter platelets. This phenomenon occurs in otherwise unmanipulated murine marrow in vivo, resulting in circulating platelets that bear Competing interest: See membrane from non-megakaryocytic hematopoietic donors.