Postoperative abdominal infectious complication (AIC) is associated with metastasis in locally advanced gastric cancer (GC) patients after radical gastrectomy. However, the underlying mechanism remains unclear. Herein, we report that neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs), the DNA meshes released by neutrophils in response to infection, could promote GC cells proliferation, invasion, migration and epithelial–mesenchymal transition dependent on TGF-β signaling. Then we model nude mice with cecal puncture without ligation to simulate postoperative AIC and find that NETs in peripheral blood and ascites fluid facilitate GC cells extravasation and implantation into liver and peritoneum for proliferation and metastasis. Notably, TGF-β signaling inhibitor LY 2157299 could effectively impede liver and peritoneal metastasis but not concurrently aggravate sepsis in those AIC-bearing nude mice. These findings implicate that targeting downstream effectors of NETs such as TGF-β signaling might provide potential therapeutic prospect to reduce the risk of GC metastasis.

Tuberculous meningitis leads to a devastating outcome, and early diagnosis and rapid chemotherapy are vital to reduce morbidity and mortality. Since Mycobacterium tuberculosis is a kind of cytozoic pathogen and its numbers are very few in cerebrospinal fluid, detecting M. tuberculosis in cerebrospinal fluid from tuberculous meningitis patients is still a challenge for clinicians. Ziehl-Neelsen stain, the current feasible microbiological method for the diagnosis of tuberculosis, often needs a large amount of cerebrospinal fluid specimen but shows a low detection rate of M. tuberculosis . Here, we developed a modified Ziehl-Neelsen stain, involving cytospin slides with Triton processing, in which only 0.5 ml of cerebrospinal fluid specimens was required. This method not only improved the detection rate of extracellular M. tuberculosis significantly but also identified intracellular M. tuberculosis in the neutrophils, monocytes, and lymphocytes clearly. Thus, our modified method is more effective and sensitive than the conventional Ziehl-Neelsen stain, providing clinicians a convenient yet powerful tool for rapidly diagnosing tuberculous meningitis.