How to Feed a Macrophage

Posted on Aug. 22, 2023 by Lawrence Tabak, D.D.S., Ph.D

For Annalise Bond, a graduate student in the lab of Meghan Morrissey, University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), macrophages are the professional eaters of our immune system. Every minute of every day, macrophages somewhere in the body are gorging themselves to remove the cellular debris that builds up in our tissues and organs.

In this image, Bond caught several macrophages (green) doing what they do best: shoveling it inin this case, during a lab experiment. The macrophages are consuming silica beads (purple) prepared with biochemicals that whet their appetites. Each bead measures about five microns in diameter. Thats roughly the size of a bacterium or a spent red blood celldebris that a macrophage routinely consumes.