Nutritive phagocytosis in animal cells

Phagocytosis in cellular defense and nutrition: a food-centered approach to the evolution of macrophages

The uptake of macromolecules and larger energy-rich particles into the cell is known as phagocytosis. Phagocytosed material is enzymatically degraded in membrane-bound vesicles of the endosome/lysosome system (intracellular digestion). Whereas most, if not all, cells of the animal body are equipped with the molecular apparatus for phagocytosis and intracellular digestion, a few cell types are specialized for a highly efficient mode of phagocytosis. These are the ("professional") macrophages, motile cells that seek out and eliminate pathogenic invaders or damaged cells. Macrophages form the backbone of the innate immune system. Developmentally, they derive from specialized compartments within the embryonic mesoderm and early vasculature as part of the process of hematopoiesis. Intensive research has revealed in detail molecular and cellular mechanisms of phagocytosis and intracellular digestion in macrophages. In contrast, little is known about a second type of cell that is "professionally" involved in phagocytosis, namely the "enteric phagocyte." Next to secretory (zymogenic) cells, enteric phagocytes form one of the two major cell types of the intestine of most invertebrate animals. Unlike vertebrates, these invertebrates only partially digest food material in the intestinal lumen. The resulting food particles are absorbed by phagocytosis or pinocytosis and digested intracellularly. In this review, we provide a brief overview of the enteric phagocytes described electron microscopically for diverse invertebrate clades, to then to compare these cells with the "canonical" phagocyte ultrastructure established for macrophages. In addition, we will review observations and speculations associated with the hypothesis that macrophages are evolutionarily derived from enteric phagocytes. This idea was already proposed in the late nineteenth century by Elias Metschnikoff who pioneered the research of phagocytosis for both macrophages and enteric phagocytes. We presume that modern approaches to better understand phagocytosis will be helped by considering the deep evolutionary relationship between the two cell types.

Stem cell dynamics in Cnidaria: are there unifying principles?

The study of stem cells in cnidarians has a history spanning hundreds of years, but it has primarily focused on the hydrozoan genus Hydra. While Hydra has a number of self-renewing cell types that act much like stem cells--in particular the interstitial cell line--finding cellular homologues outside of the Hydrozoa has been complicated by the morphological simplicity of stem cells and inconclusive gene expression data. In non-hydrozoan cnidarians, an enigmatic cell type known as the amoebocyte might play a similar role to interstitial cells, but there is little evidence that I-cells and amoebocytes are homologous. Instead, self-renewal and transdifferentiation of epithelial cells was probably more important to ancestral cnidarian development than any undifferentiated cell lineage, and only later in evolution did one or more cell types come under the regulation of a "stem" cell line. Ultimately, this hypothesis and competing ones will need to be tested by expanding genetic and developmental studies on a variety of cnidarian model systems.

Primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD)

This article summarizes the current state of the scientific and clinical knowledge that relates to primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD). Although PCD is a rare disease with a prevalence of 1 in 20,000 it has a well recognized morbidity. It is believed that an accurate diagnosis and the application of appropriate management can significantly reduce this morbidity. The cilia themselves are highly complicated organelles that perform important functions, particularly in the respiratory and reproductive tracts, and they have been the focus of many years of research. Our current knowledge of ciliary function and mucociliary clearance is summarized, and the relationship with laterality defects is discussed. A phenotype resembling PCD is also seen in animal models, and some of these are described before reviewing the clinical aspects of PCD in humans and new developments in the field that may have implications for the future investigation and management of affected individuals.

Absorption of protein molecules by the small intestine of the bullfrog tadpole, Rana catesbeiana

In the tadpole of the bullfrog, Rana catesbeiana, the absorptive cells of the small intestine are characterized by the presence of invaginations of the surface plasma membrane or pinocytic vesicles in the apical cytoplasm and numerous lysosomes in the supranuclear region. These cytological features suggest that the absorptive cells may be able to ingest some macromolecules or particles. The possibility of macromolecular absorption in this animal was examined by using horseradish peroxidase (HRP) and the electron microscopic cytochemical technique. Exogenous HRP was ingested in the absorptive cells by pinocytosis and then accumulated in multivesicular bodies (MVBs) by the contribution of pinocytic vesicles to MVBs. The pinocytic vesicle changed its shape to have an inner vesicle. Some of the inner vesicles of MVBs seem to have originated from the inner vesicles of pinocytic vesicles. Almost all the MVBs in the subapical region showed HRP activity, but some of them showed no acid phosphatase (AcPase) activity; those in the supranuclear region always showed an intense AcPase activity. Therefore some of the subapical MVBs are heterophagosomes and may be joined with lysosome during the movement toward the supranuclear region. The MVBs with lysosomal enzymes in the subapical or supranuclear region are presumably important sites of intracellular digestion. The results indicate that intracellular digestion may occur in the small intestine of the bullfrog tadpole under natural conditions.