Lexic.us

Definition of Phagocytosis

1. Noun. Process in which phagocytes engulf and digest microorganisms and cellular debris; an important defense against infection.

Definition of Phagocytosis

1. Noun. (context: immunology cytology) The process where a cell incorporates a particle by extending pseudopodia and drawing the particle into a vacuole of its cytoplasm. ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Definition of Phagocytosis

1. [n -TOSES]

Medical Definition of Phagocytosis

1. Endocytosis of particulate material, such as microorganisms or cell fragments. The material is taken into the cell in membrane bound vesicles (phagosomes) that originate as pinched off invaginations of the plasma membrane. Phagosomes fuse with lysosomes, forming phagolysosomes in which the engulfed material is killed and digested. Origin: L. Phagedaena, Gr Phago, To eat. This entry appears with permission from the Dictionary of Cell and Molecular Biology (11 Mar 2008)

Lexicographical Neighbors of Phagocytosis

Literary usage of Phagocytosis

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. A Text-book of Pathology by William George MacCallum, Harry Gideon Wells (1907)
"It is probable that phagocytosis by fixed tissue-cells is of much less importance in checking bacterial growth than is phagocytosis by leucocytes. ..."

2. Principles of General Physiology by William Maddock Bayliss (1920)
"phagocytosis AND "OPSONINS" Certain specific substances have been described which are supposed to increase the taking up of micro-organisms by leucocytes. ..."

3. Infection and Resistance: An Exposition of the Biological Phenomena by Hans Zinsser, Stewart Woodford Young (1914)
"When phagocytosis of the invading yeasts was energetic and complete the daphnia recovered. When the yeast cells penetrated the intestinal wall of the ..."

4. Principles of Immunology by Howard Thomas Karsner, Enrique Eduardo Ecker (1921)
"phagocytosis Introduction.—Metchnikoff has defined the phagocyte as a cell ... Similarly the process of phagocytosis can be referred to as the process of ..."

5. Infection and Resistance: An Exposition of the Biological Phenomena by Hans Zinsser, Stewart Woodford Young (1918)
"When phagocytosis of the invading yeasts was energetic and complete the daphnia recovered. When the yeast cells penetrated the intestinal wall of the ..."

6. Preventive medicine and hygiene by Milton Joseph Rosenau (1917)
"phagocytosis Metchnikoff gave us the first physical explanation of immunit through his brilliant studies upon phagocytosis. ..."

7. Pathological physiology of internal diseases by Albion Walter Hewlett (1916)
"cause of variations in phagocytosis is a difference in the composition of the blood serum. Leukocytes from a non-immune animal, for example, ..."

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