Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The killing of microbes is a critical function of phagocytes that is performed either within the phagocyte (intracellular killing) or outside of the phagocyte (extracellular killing). [ 31 ] Oxygen-dependent intracellular
The engulfing of a pathogen by a phagocyte. In a multicellular organism's immune system, phagocytosis is a major mechanism used to remove pathogens and cell debris. The ingested material is then digested in the phagosome. Bacteria, dead tissue cells, and small mineral particles are all examples of objects that may be phagocytized.
Cell-mediated immunity is directed primarily at microbes that survive in phagocytes and microbes that infect non-phagocytic cells. It is most effective in removing virus-infected cells, but also participates in defending against fungi, protozoans, cancers, and intracellular bacteria.
Macrophages are the most efficient phagocytes and can phagocytose substantial numbers of bacteria or other cells or microbes. [2] The binding of bacterial molecules to receptors on the surface of a macrophage triggers it to engulf and destroy the bacteria through the generation of a "respiratory burst", causing the release of reactive oxygen ...
They engulf other smaller microbes and digest them within the phagosome of around one bacterium per minute, which is much faster than professional phagocytes. [24] For the soil amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum, their main food source is the bacteria Legionella pneumophila, which causes Legionnaire's disease in humans. [25]
Macrophages (/ ˈ m æ k r oʊ f eɪ dʒ /; abbreviated Mφ, MΦ or MP) are a type of white blood cell of the innate immune system that engulf and digest pathogens, such as cancer cells, microbes, cellular debris and foreign substances, which do not have proteins that are specific to healthy body cells on their surface.
Scheme of the complement system. The complement system, also known as complement cascade, is a part of the humoral, innate immune system and enhances (complements) the ability of antibodies and phagocytic cells to clear microbes and damaged cells from an organism, promote inflammation, and attack the pathogen's cell membrane. [1]
Scanning electron micrograph of a phagocyte (yellow, right) phagocytosing anthrax bacilli (orange, left). The history of phagocytosis is an account of the discoveries of cells, known as phagocytes, that are capable of eating other cells or particles, and how that eventually established the science of immunology.