凋亡细胞的吞噬清除

Phagocytotic Clearance of Apoptotic Cells

吞噬清除是后生动物大多数凋亡细胞的共同命运。凋亡细胞如果不被有效及时清除,它们就会发生次级的细胞坏死,细胞核膜和细胞核裂解,细胞解体,释放出有毒内容物,导致严重炎症和狼疮样自身免疫疾病的发生。据估计人体内每天有上亿个细胞凋亡而死,但用组化方法只能检测到极少数凋亡细胞,说明人体对凋亡细胞清除效率很高。新近,对凋亡细胞吞噬清除分子机制的研究取得长足进展。本文主要就吞噬信号及其识别、传导和凋亡细胞的吞噬作简要概述。

Phagocytitic removal is a common fate for the large number of cells undergoing apoptosis in metazoans.When apoototic cells are not promptly phagocytosed,they eventually become necrotic;probability of the plasma membrane increases,and cell contents including harmful materials such as hydrolysed chromatin start to leak out,often resulting in the development of diseases such as inflammation and autoimmunity.It is estimated that as many as 10billion of cells die by apoptosis each day in our body,yet only a small number of apoptotic cells are detected histochemically,suggesting the high efficiency of the removal process.Recently,agreat progress has been made on molecular mechanisms of phagocytic clearance of apoptotic cells,which is briefly discussed in this review.