Chapter category: Immunology

Phagosome Maturation

This chapter appears in the following book:

Molecular Mechanisms of Phagocytosis

Edited by: Carlos Rosales
ISBN: 0-387-25419-6
» Get more information about this book at landesbioscience.com «

Chapter authors:
William S. Trimble, Marc G. Coppolino

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Phagocytosis is the process used by eukaryotic cells to engulf and ingest foreign particles. In lower eukaryotes this process is mainly used for food uptake while in multicellular organisms phagocytosis is the primary mechanism used to fight infection. Phagocytosis of microbes typically leads to their killing as the organelle of ingestion, the phagosome, acquires anti-microbial properties through a process termed “phagosomal maturation”. Since many of these microbicidal properties are also typical of the lysosome, the mature phagosome has been called a phagolysosome and parallels have been drawn between the maturation process and the endocytic pathway. Importantly, some microbes have evolved mechanisms to abrogate the maturation process, allowing them to persist as intracellular parasites within the very cells charged with the task of eliminating them. In this chapter we will focus on the molecular mechanisms involved in the maturation of the mammalian macrophage phagosome, especially those formed by activation of the Fc receptor, and how some intracellullar parasites derail this maturation process.

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Chapter category: Immunology

Phagosome Maturation

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