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Endocytosis is a cellular process in which substances are brought into the cell. The material to be internalized is surrounded by an area of cell membrane, which then buds off inside the cell to form a vesicle containing the ingested materials. Endocytosis includes pinocytosis (cell drinking) and phagocytosis (cell eating). It is a form of ...
Endocytosis is when a cell absorbs a molecule, such as a protein, from outside the cell by engulfing it with the cell membrane. It is used by most cells, because many critical substances are large polar molecules that cannot pass through the cell membrane. The two major types of endocytosis are pinocytosis and phagocytosis.
Phagocytosis (from Ancient Greek φαγεῖν (phagein) 'to eat' and κύτος (kytos) 'cell') is the process by which a cell uses its plasma membrane to engulf a large particle (≥ 0.5 μm), giving rise to an internal compartment called the phagosome. It is one type of endocytosis. A cell that performs phagocytosis is called a phagocyte.
Lysosomes are structures that use enzymes to break down substances through phagocytosis, a process that comprises endocytosis and exocytosis. In the mitochondria, metabolic processes such as cellular respiration occur. The cytoskeleton is made of fibers that support the structure of the cell and help the cell move. [2]
Heterophagic intracellular digestion has an important job which is to break down all molecules that are brought into a cell by endocytosis. [3] The degraded molecules need to be delivered to the cytoplasm; however, this will not be possible if the molecules are not hydrolyzed in the lysosome. [ 3 ]
Like other types of receptor-mediated endocytosis, potocytosis typically begins when an extracellular ligand binds to a receptor protein on the surface of a cell, thus beginning the formation of an endocytotic vesicle. The ligand is usually of low molecular mass (e.g. vitamins), but some larger molecules (such as lipids) can also act as ligands.
Intracellular transport is an overarching category of how cells obtain nutrients and signals. One very well understood form of intracellular transport is known as endocytosis. Endocytosis is defined as the uptake of material by the invagination of the plasma membrane. [4]
The first demonstration of phagocytosis as a property of leukocytes, the immune cells, was from the German zoologist Ernst Haeckel. [14] [15] In 1846, English physician Thomas Wharton Jones had discovered that a group of leucocytes, which he called "granule-cell" (later renamed and identified as eosinophil [16]), could change shape, the phenomenon later called amoeboid movement.