Phagocytosis edit Macrophages are professional phagocytes and are highly specialized in removal of dying or dead cells and cellular debris. This role is important in chronic inflammation, as the early stages of inflammation are dominated by neutrophils, which are ingested by macrophages if they come of age (see CD31 for a description of this process). The neutrophils are at first attracted to a site, where they perform their function and die, before they are phagocytized by the macrophages. When at the site, the first wave of neutrophils, after the process of aging and after the first 48 hours, stimulate the appearance of the macrophages whereby these macrophages will then ingest the aged neutrophils. The removal of dying cells is, to a greater extent, handled by fixed macrophages , which will stay at strategic locations such as the lungs, liver, neural tissue, bone, spleen and connective tissue, ingesting foreign materials such as pathogens and recruiting additional macrophages if nee...
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