Excited to share @kirstin-rollins.bsky.social thesis project! 🥳Why do macrophages sometimes eat a whole cell, and sometimes just nibble off pieces? We found that if the target cell is stuck to a substrate or part of a 3D tissue, the macrophage nibbles instead of phagocytosing the whole cell.

bioRxiv Cell Biology@biorxiv-cellbio.bsky.social · last yr.

Target cell adhesion limits macrophage phagocytosis and promotes trogocytosis https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.02.06.636906v1

Wyatt Miller's thesis project is on bioRxiv! We describe the signaling cascade that allows the 'Don't Eat Me' signal CD47 to inhibit phagocytosis. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

CD47 prevents Rac-mediated phagocytosis through Vav1 dephosphorylation

CD47 is expressed by viable cells to protect against phagocytosis. CD47 is recognized by SIRPα, an inhibitory receptor expressed by macrophages and other myeloid cells. Activated SIRPα recruits SHP-1 ...

biorxiv.org

@mmorrissey.bsky.social is investigating how immune cells known as macrophages might be induced to “nibble” cancer cells to death through a process called trogocytosis.

@annalisebond.bsky.social and @mmorrissey.bsky.social @ucsantabarbara.bsky.social review the biochemical and biophysical mechanisms that macrophages use to tune phagocytic appetite. journals.biologists.com/jcs/article/...