PUBLICATION

Strategies of professional phagocytes in vivo: unlike macrophages, neutrophils engulf only surface-associated microbes

Authors
Colucci-Guyon, E., Tinevez, J.Y., Renshaw, S.A., and Herbomel, P.
ID
ZDB-PUB-110901-17
Date
2011
Source
Journal of Cell Science   124(Pt 18): 3053-9 (Journal)
Registered Authors
Colucci-Guyon, Emma, Herbomel, Philippe, Renshaw, Steve A.
Keywords
none
MeSH Terms
  • Animals
  • Bacterial Adhesion/immunology
  • Body Fluids/metabolism*
  • Cells, Cultured
  • Escherichia coli/immunology*
  • Escherichia coli/metabolism
  • Host-Pathogen Interactions
  • Immunity, Innate
  • Larva
  • Macrophages/immunology
  • Macrophages/metabolism*
  • Macrophages/pathology
  • Neutrophil Activation/immunology
  • Neutrophils/immunology
  • Neutrophils/metabolism*
  • Neutrophils/pathology
  • Phagocytosis*/immunology
  • Time-Lapse Imaging
  • Zebrafish
PubMed
21868367 Full text @ J. Cell Sci.
Abstract
The early control of potentially invading microbes by our immune system primarily depends on its main professional phagocytes - macrophages and neutrophils. Although the different functions of these two cell types have been extensively studied, little is known about their respective contributions to the initial control of invading microorganisms before the onset of adaptive immune responses. The naturally translucent zebrafish larva has recently emerged as a powerful model vertebrate in which to visualise the dynamic interactions between leukocytes and microbes in vivo. Using high-resolution live imaging, we found that whereas macrophages efficiently engulf bacteria from blood or fluid-filled body cavities, neutrophils barely do so. By contrast, neutrophils very efficiently sweep up surface-associated, but not fluid-borne, bacteria. Thus the physical presentation of unopsonised microbes is a crucial determinant of neutrophil phagocytic ability. Neutrophils engulf microbes only as they move over them, in a [vacuum-cleaner] type of behaviour. This context-dependent nature of phagocytosis by neutrophils should be of particular relevance to human infectious diseases, especially for the early phase of encounter with microbes new to the host.
Genes / Markers
Figures
Expression
Phenotype
Mutations / Transgenics
Human Disease / Model
Sequence Targeting Reagents
Fish
Antibodies
Orthology
Engineered Foreign Genes
Mapping