scavenger cell

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phag·o·cyte

(fag'ō-sīt),

A cell that can ingest bacteria, foreign particles, and other cells. Phagocytes ingest and kill microbes, present antigen to lymphocytes, scavenge degenerating material, and release mediators. classes: 1) microphages, polymorphonuclear leukocytes that ingest chiefly bacteria; 2) macrophages, mononucleated cells (histiocytes and monocytes) that are largely scavengers, ingesting dead tissue and degenerated cells.

Synonym(s): carrier cell, scavenger cell

[phago- + G. kytos, cell]

Farlex Partner Medical Dictionary © Farlex 2012

scavenger cell

A nonspecific term for a phagocytic cell; macrophage.

References in periodicals archive ?

Tailings from the magnetic separator report to the Wemco 14.3 [m.sup.3] scavenger cells.

Minera Bismark

As a result, the fatty material builds up in scavenger cells of the immune systems, called macrophages.

Altered enzyme reverses Gaucher's symptoms

Instead, scientists have accumulated evidence that HIV in the central nervous system mainly replicates inside two types of related cells: macrophages (scavenger cells that have migrated from the blood) and microglial cells (the resident immune cells of the brain and spinal cord).

HIV in the brain and spinal cord

But he suggests that immune-system scavenger cells in the brain may directly contribute to the Alzheimer's scenario by over-producing beta amyloid themselves.

Toward a future with memory: researchers look high and low for the essence of Alzheimer's

Such soluble substances could be primarily responsible for demyelination, according to McFarlin, who predicts that "in the next few years, a number of these factors will be shown to have direct effects on myelin.' The latest results supporting this optimism are new data indicating that scavenger cells called macrophages secrete a chemical that disintegrates other cells and McFarlin's preliminary discovery that multiple sclerosis patients have a "peculiar pattern of T-cell receptor gene.' It is also possible, says McFarlin, that several genes responsible for regulation of the immune system are defective in multiple sclerosis.

Still stalking MS: of unknown cause and cure, multiple sclerosis has researchers following both old and new trails of discovery

The chief victims: mononuclear cells, the scavenger cells that destroy bacteria and other foreign material.