efferocytosis
Sign in to savethumb|Labelled diagram of a cell undergoing apoptosis In cell biology, efferocytosis (from efferre, Latin for 'to carry out' (to the grave), extended meaning 'to bury') is the process by which apoptotic cells are removed by phagocytic cells. It can be regarded as the 'burying of dead cells'.
Research
2,407 papers- Efferocytosis in health and disease.Nature reviews. Immunology · 2020
- Drugging the efferocytosis process: concepts and opportunities.Nature reviews. Drug discovery · 2022
- Stiffness sensing via Piezo1 enhances macrophage efferocytosis and promotes the resolution of liver fibrosis.Science advances · 2024
- Targeting Efferocytosis in Inflammaging.Annual review of pharmacology and toxicology · 2024
- Efferocytosis in atherosclerosis.Nature reviews. Cardiology · 2024
via PubMed
~3 min read
Encyclopedic overview
4 sectionsContents
- Mechanism
- Downstream consequences
- Clinical significance
- Footnotes
thumb|Labelled diagram of a cell undergoing apoptosis In cell biology, efferocytosis (from efferre, Latin for 'to carry out' (to the grave), extended meaning 'to bury') is the process by which apoptotic cells are removed by phagocytic cells. It can be regarded as the 'burying of dead cells'.
During efferocytosis, the cell membrane of phagocytic cells engulfs the apoptotic cell, forming a large fluid-filled vesicle containing the dead cell. This ingested vesicle is called an efferosome (in analogy to the term phagosome). This process is similar to macropinocytosis.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “efferocytosis” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.