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Scanning electron micrograph of a phagocyte (yellow, right) phagocytosing anthrax bacilli (orange, left). The history of phagocytosis is an account of the discoveries of cells, known as phagocytes, that are capable of eating other cells or particles, and how that eventually established the science of immunology.
The history of phagocytosis represents the scientific establishment of immunology as the process is the first immune response mechanism discovered and understood as such. [1] [2] The earliest definitive account of cell eating was given by Swiss scientist Albert von Kölliker in 1849. [3]
The phagocytes move by a method called chemotaxis. When phagocytes come into contact with bacteria, the receptors on the phagocyte's surface will bind to them. This binding will lead to the engulfing of the bacteria by the phagocyte. [11] Some phagocytes kill the ingested pathogen with oxidants and nitric oxide. [12]
Honoured as the "father of innate immunity", [16] [17] Metchnikoff was the first to discover a process of immunity called phagocytosis and the cell responsible for it, called phagocyte, specifically macrophage, in 1882.
Phagocytosis is an important feature of cellular innate immunity performed by cells called phagocytes that engulf pathogens or particles. Phagocytes generally patrol the body searching for pathogens, but can be called to specific locations by cytokines. [29]
A majority of macrophages are stationed at strategic points where microbial invasion or accumulation of foreign particles is likely to occur. These cells together as a group are known as the mononuclear phagocyte system and were previously known as the reticuloendothelial system. Each type of macrophage, determined by its location, has a ...
Cell-mediated immunity is directed primarily at microbes that survive in phagocytes and microbes that infect non-phagocytic cells. It is most effective in removing virus-infected cells, but also participates in defending against fungi, protozoans, cancers, and intracellular bacteria.
In anatomy the term reticuloendothelial system (abbreviated RES), often associated nowadays with the mononuclear phagocyte system (MPS), was employed by the beginning of the 20th century to denote a system of specialised cells that effectively clear colloidal vital stains (so called because they stain living cells) from the blood circulation.