Macrophage
hideMacrophages (Greek: big eaters, from makros "large" + phagein "eat"; abbr. MΦ) are white blood cells within tissues, produced by the division of monocytes. Human macrophages are about 21 micrometres in diameter. Monocytes and macrophages are phagocytes, acting in both non-specific defense (or innate immunity) as well as to help initiate specific defense mechanisms (or adaptive immunity) of vertebrate animals. Their role is to phagocytose (engulf and then digest) cellular debris and pathogens either as stationary or as mobile cells, and to stimulate lymphocytes and other immune cells to respond to the pathogen. They can be identified by specific expression of a number of proteins including CD14, CD11b, F4/80 (mice)/EMR1 (human), Lysozyme M, MAC-1/MAC-3 and CD68 by flow cytometry or immunohistochemical staining. They move by action of Amoeboid movement.
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News tagged with macrophages
Interstitial macrophages: immune cells that prevent asthma
Nov 10, 2009 |
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The continual presence in the air of the microbe-derived molecule LPS promotes asthma in some individuals. What prevents inhalation of LPS from promoting asthma in most individuals is not well understood. However, researchers ...
New insight in the fight against the Leishmania parasite
Oct 23, 2009 |
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Professor Albert Descoteaux's team at Centre INRS - Institut Armand-Frappier, Canada, has gained a better understanding of how the Leishmania donovani parasite manages to outsmart the human immune system and proliferate with i ...
Smoking increases risk of developing active TB
Aug 24, 2009 |
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Smoking is a risk factor for active tuberculosis (TB) disease, according to a new study on TB incidence in Taiwan.
New discovery points the way towards malaria 'vaccine'
Aug 21, 2009 |
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Malaria kills anywhere from one to three million people around the world annually and affects the lives of up to 500 million more. Yet until now, scientists did not fully understand exactly how the process that caused the ...
Stripping leukemia-initiating cells of their 'invisibility cloak'
Jul 23, 2009 |
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Two new studies reveal a way to increase the body's appetite for gobbling up the cancer stem cells responsible for acute myeloid leukemia (AML), a form of cancer with a particularly poor survival rate. The key is targeting ...
Scientists solve mystery about why HIV patients are more susceptible to TB infection
Medicine & Health / HIV & AIDS
Jun 30, 2009 |
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A team of Harvard scientists has taken an important first step toward the development of new treatments to help people with HIV battle Mycobacterium tuberculosis (TB) infection. In their report, appearing in the July 2009 p ...
Research suggests new cellular targets for HIV drug development
Medicine & Health / HIV & AIDS
May 27, 2009 |
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Focusing HIV drug development on immune cells called macrophages instead of traditionally targeted T cells could bring us closer to eradicating the disease, according to new research from University of Florida and five other ...
New study overturns orthodoxy on how macrophages kill bacteria
Apr 27, 2009 |
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For decades, microbiologists assumed that macrophages, immune cells that can engulf and poison bacteria and other pathogens, killed microbes by damaging their DNA. A new study from the University of Illinois ...
A novel method of isolating high quality RNA from Kupffer cells
Apr 17, 2009 |
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Kupffer cells, resident tissue macrophages that line the liver sinusoids, play a key role in modulating inflammation in a number of experimental models of liver injury. Since Kupffer cells represent only a small portion of ...
Study shows benefits of hormone found in fat tissue
Feb 26, 2009 |
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It's called the obesity paradox. Although obese people are more apt to suffer from inflammatory diseases, such as diabetes, heart disease, and stroke, they are also more likely to survive a major attack caused by one of those ...
Findings turn events in early TB infection on their head, may lead to new therapy
Biology /
Jan 08, 2009 |
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Masses of immune cells that form as a hallmark of tuberculosis (TB) have long been thought to be the body's way of trying to protect itself by literally walling off the bacteria. But a new study in the January 9th issue of ...
Parasites that live inside cells use loophole to thwart immune system
Nov 03, 2008 |
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St. Jude Children's Research Hospital scientists have discovered a mechanism by which intracellular pathogens can shut down one of the body's key chemical weapons against them: nitric oxide. The researchers found that the ...
Killing 'angry' immune cells in fat could fight diabetes
Biology /
Oct 07, 2008 |
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By killing off "angry" immune cells that take up residence in obese fat and muscle tissue, researchers have shown that they can rapidly reverse insulin resistance in obese mice. The findings reported in the October Cell Me ...
