After cell death: the molecular machinery of efferocytosis

Experimental & Molecular Medicine, Published online: 23 August 2023; doi:10.1038/s12276-023-01070-5Vast numbers of cells die every day in a healthy adult and are cleared away in a process called efferocytosis in which ‘phagocyte’ cells engulf and degrade the remains. Daeho Park and colleagues at Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology in South Korea review the current understanding of efferocytosis at the molecular level. Research over several decades has discovered many of the molecules involved in the multiple stages of efferocytosis, which include finding, recognizing, engulfing, and degrading a wide variety of materials, but significant details remain to be uncovered. Defects in efferocytosis are implicated in many diseases, including autoimmune conditions, atherosclerosis, airway inflammation, and colitis. A better understanding of the multistep molecular processes of efferocytosis could open new avenues toward treatments for a variety of immunological and metabolic diseases.

Source: Experimental and Molecular Medicine - August 23, 2023 Category: Molecular Biology Authors: Byeongjin Moon Susumin Yang Hyunji Moon Juyeon Lee Daeho Park Source Type: research