How do macrophages know what to eat?
mark.haynes at mail.tju.edu
Thu Feb 12 14:52:38 EST 1998
Just to expand into another grey area that was talked about in the past
in the idea of danger and non-danger. Polly Matzinger hypothesis is that
dying cells release compounds which would activate dendritic cells in
the case of danger and wouldn't in the lack of danger. That activation,
if her model is correct, may play a role in controlling responsivity.
This idea could be approximated to include bacteria. However, by binding
bacteria the phagocyte is promoted to engulf it. the other posts have
talked about how this process is mechanically controlled (opsinization
with C' and/or AB. Sialic residues can initiate binding to macs as
well. However, phagocytosis and antigen presentation are NOT
self/nonself discrimination. All peptides from degraded proteins are
presented (to one extent or another) self and non-self.
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