Background research
What is apoptosis？
Apoptosis is a form of cell death. It is a essential process to eliminate unwanted or harmful cells in a multicellular organism. In contrast to necrosis (a form of cell death that occurs when cells are damaged by injury), apoptosis is carried out in an ordered process (cell shrinkage, membrane blebbing, DNA degradation, formation of apoptosomes) without releasing intracellular materials from the dying cells.
What is phagocytosis？
Apoptotic cells are rapidly engulfed by phagocytes to prevent the release of potentially noxious or immunogenic intracellular materials from the dying cells. Phagocytes engulf apoptotic but not healthy cells, indicating that the apoptotic cells present a signal to the phagocytes, and the phagocytes recognized the signal using a specific receptor.
