*3.2. Vitamin C Deficient Neutrophils Show Increased PAD4 mRNA*

Unlike apoptosis, rapid intracellular decondensation of nuclear chromatin is a hallmark of NETosis [19,25]. Decondensation of nuclear chromatin requires the removal of positively charged arginine residues on histones by deimination or citrullination, which is carried out by a family of peptidylargininedeiminases (PAD). Of these, only PAD4 is expressed by neutrophils [26] and possesses a classical nuclear localization signal [27]. Importantly Wang *et al.* have shown that PAD4 is indispensable for NETosis [18]. Therefore, we examined mRNA expression of PAD4 in PMNs from VitC sufficient and deficient mice. As seen in Figure 2, PAD4 mRNA expression was significantly higher in thioglycollate elicited peritoneal PMNs from VitC deficient mice (*p* < 0.05).
