Progress of phagosome maturation and function in neutrophil, macrophage and dendritic cell / 中华微生物学和免疫学杂志

ABSTRACT

Phagosomes undergo the fusion of early endosomes, late endosomes and lysosomes, and then degrade antigens and kill pathogenic microorganisms, which is called phagosome maturation. The functional differences of phagosomes after maturation in different immune cells lead to distinct characteristics on their processing of phagocytic antigens. It has been found that the antigen degradation ability of immune cells is opposite to their antigen presentation capacity through comparing the functional differences of phagosomes from neutrophils, macrophages and dendritic cells after antigens uptake. Among them, dendritic cells have the strongest antigen presentation capacity, followed by macrophages and neutrophils. The in-depth study of immune cell phagosome maturation and antigen presentation will provide new strategies for vaccine development and immunotherapy.