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Phagocytosis and innate immunity
Steven Greenberg1, Sergio Grinstein
1Columbia University, Departments of Medicine and Pharmacology/BB914, 630 West 168th Street, New York, NY 10032, USA. greenberg@cuccfa.ccc.columbia.edu
Current Opinion in Immunology
|January 16, 2002
Abstract:
Phagocytosis is an evolutionarily conserved process utilized by many cells to ingest microbial pathogens, and apoptotic and necrotic corpses. Recent investigation has revealed a fundamental requirement for two co-ordinated cellular processes--cytoskeletal alterations and membrane trafficking--in the phagocytic event. Some elements of this machinery are co-opted by certain pathogens to gain entry into host cells.