Fig. 10
A schematic representation summarizing the experimental results. Under increased pulmonary IL-6 expression, down-regulated miR-146a expression in alveolar cells can induce cell apoptosis with the release of HMGB1, functioning as DAMP molecule to engage TLR4-expressed neutrophils, followed by activated PKC to mobilize intracellular Ca2 + and promote PAD4 activation, leading to NETs formation. Furthermore, through down-regulating miR-146a levels by IL-6 stimulation, up-regulated expression of the target molecule TRAF6 in alveolar cells and neutrophils can enhance the secretion of IL-8, a well-known inducer of NETosis