Phagocytosis is the process by which microbial pathogens are engulfed by macrophages and neutrophils and represents the first line of defense against bacterial infection. The importance of phagocytosis for bacterial clearance is of particular relevance to systemic inflammatory diseases, which are associated with the development of hypoxia, yet the precise effects of hypoxia on phagocytosis rema...

topics as diverse as development, pheromonal communication and meiosis. The overall theme of these studies remains the evolution of cooperation and conflict. The same logic can be used while studying the fate of paternallyand maternallyinherited genes during meiosis in Caenorhabditis elegans or the partitioning of reproduction in a wasp society. After all, this all has to do with tricks (be it ...

The Src homology 2 domain-containing inositol 5'-phosphatase (SHIP) is recruited to immunoreceptor tyrosine-based inhibition motif (ITIM)-containing proteins, thereby suppressing phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI 3-kinase)-dependent pathways. The role of SHIP in phagocytosis, a PI 3-kinase-dependent pathway, is unknown. Overexpression of SHIP in macrophages led to an inhibition of phagocytosis ...

The mechanisms involved in coiling phagocytosis are not yet known, and it is not even clear whether this phenomenon is either an incidental event or a specific response. Therefore, the phagocytic uptake of Borrelia burgdorferi and other spirochetes by human monocytes in vitro was used to investigate the involvement of both sides--microbes and phagocytes--in coiling phagocytosis. As seen with el...

Phagocytosis mediated by FcgammaR plays an important role in host defense. The molecular events involved in this process have not been completely defined. The adapter protein Cbl has been implicated in FcgammaR signaling, but the function of Cbl in phagocytosis is unknown. Here we show that overexpression of the transforming mutants of Cbl, Cbl-70Z, and v-Cbl, but not wild-type (wt) Cbl, enhanc...

Heterophil phagocytosis of fluorescein-labeled staphylococcal bacteria was analyzed by flow cytometry. Opsonization with two types of normal pooled sera and staphylococcal antisera significantly increased bacterial phagocytosis compared to samples without an opsonin. The staphylococcal antisera did not significantly increase bacterial phagocytosis compared to the normal pooled sera. Opsonizatio...

in chronic myelogenous leukemia (cml), the mature granulocytes originate from a stem cell line harboring an abnormal chromosome, therefore it is possible that metabolic-functional abnormalities occur in the morphologically mature cells. in the present study, the phagocytic activity including intracellular killing, nitro blue tetrazolium (nbt) reduction, and phagocytosis were studied in 37 cml p...

Posttranslational modifications provide Entamoeba histolytica proteins the timing and signaling to intervene during different processes, such as phagocytosis. However, SUMOylation has not been studied in E. yet. Here, we characterized SUMO gene, its product (EhSUMO), relevance of Our results indicated that EhSUMO an extended N-terminus differentiates from ubiquitin. It also presents GG residues...

Phagocytosis is a primary defense program orchestrated by monocytes/macrophages. Unregulated phagocytosis can lead to pathological conditions. In the current study we have demonstrated that Wnt5a stimulates phagocytosis through PI3 kinase-Rac1 and lipid-raft-dependent processes. Wnt5a-mediated augmentation in phagocytosis is suppressed by blocking expression of the putative Wnt5a receptor Frizz...

BACKGROUND Alveolar macrophages in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) have fundamental impairment of phagocytosis for nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae (NTHI). However, relative selectivity of dysfunctional phagocytosis among diverse respiratory pathogens: NTHI, Moraxella catarrhalis (MC), Streptococcus pneumoniae (SP), and nonbacterial particles, as well as the contribution of impai...