[Assessing the basic stages of the phagocytic process: current approaches to and prospects for research development]

The paper combines dedications to the marked event of Russian biology and medicine, I. I. Mechnikov's 150th birthday, and to the development of one of the most important problems of modern experimental medicine, the application of advances made in the study of phagocytosis to clinical practice. Based on the data available in the literature and their own findings, approaches to a stepwise assessment of phagocytosis is substantiated. A special attention is given to the discussion of the clinically available techniques which adequately evaluate phagocytic adhesion, degranulation processes, oxygen metabolic activation giving rise to active forms of oxygen, nitrogen, the killing and decomposition of phagocytotic objects. The material is presented by aiming at the tasks of clinical medicine to diagnose the major phagocytotic disorders within the general examination of immunity functions.