Macrophages - Types and Significance

The macrophage is a cell of the innate immune system, which is present in the tissue. If it is present in the blood, then it is called monocyte. Monocytes leave the blood and enter the body tissues, in response to chemotactic factors, and become tissue macrophages.

Dr. Mobeen Syed explains that monocyte is not an active cell. Once it enters the tissue, it becomes enlarged five times by swelling up. It matures its lysosomes. It becomes a mature macrophage to participate in the immune system.

The macrophages in the blood are called monocytes. In the connective tissue, they are called histiocytes. Histiocytes are attached to the cells. Histiocytes are also called dendritic cells, depending on their appearance.

Macrophages under the skin are called Langerhans cells. Macrophages are present in the liver sinuses. A macrophage sitting in a liver sinus can phagocytose a pathogen within the 100th of a second. The resident macrophages in the liver are called Kupffer cells. 

The GIT of the alcoholic becomes more permeable to the things passing from the GIT into the portal blood. It causes the entrance of more pathogens from GIT to the liver. More macrophages will encounter the pathogens in the liver.

The following topics have discussed:

* Types of macrophages

* Maturation of macrophages

* Location of macrophages

* Efficiency of macrophage in the liver