Phagocytosis, from the ancient greek phagein, meaning “to - TopicsExpress



          

Phagocytosis, from the ancient greek phagein, meaning “to devour”, kytos, meaning “cell” and osis meaning “process”, is the process by which a cell engulfs a solid particle to form a vesicle known as a phagosome. The process is homologous to eating one-celled organisms. In multicellular organisms, the process has been adapted to eliminate pathogens and debris. Phagocytosis plays a major role in the immune system. It is a mechanism by which organisms remove pathogens called cell debris. For example, when a macrophage engulfs a pathogenic microorganism such as a bacterium, the pathogen becomes trapped in a phagosome. The phagosome then fuses with a lysosome to form a phagolysosome. Inside the phagolysosome, enzymes and toxic peroxides digest the pathogen, thereby neutralizing the threat. Visualize this process with this animation: vimeo/70326148 Info source: Wikipedia.org
Posted on: Mon, 17 Nov 2014 15:55:53 +0000

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