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Recognition and Engulfment Mechanism of Apoptotic Cells
Qiang Wang, Yu-Bin Ding, Min-Hui Pan*, Cheng Lu
Key Sericultural Laboratory of Agriculture Ministry, College of Sericulture and Biotechnology, Southwest Agriculture University, Chongqing 400716, China
Abstract: Apoptotic cells can be engulfed by phagocytes. This process is greatly crucial for normal tissue homeostasis and immune responses. During engulfment， a number of receptors on phagocytes are implicated in recognizing signals from apoptotic cells， such as "eat-me" signals， the absence of "don't-eat-me" signals normally found on healthy cells， as well as soluble "come-get-me" signals secreted by preys. At least seven engulfment genes in Caenorhabditis elegans (they have homologues in mammals) constitute two parallel but partially overlapped signaling pathways to induce the engulfment of apoptotic cells by a conserved "tether and tickle" mechanism akin to macropinocytosis. However， the mechanism probably varies with the apoptotic cells and phagocytes types， even with the age of corpses.
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