Immune Regulation by Dead Cell Clearance

When cell death occurs in vivo, cell corpses are not left untreated, but are recognized and engulfed by phagocytes, such as macrophages and dendritic cells. In the past, cell death had been considered the final process of a cell's life, and cell corpses had been viewed as debris that is simply to be cleared by phagocytes. Recently, however, it has become clearer that various biological responses are induced with dead cells as the starting point. Most of these biological responses followed by cell death are thought to be mediated by macrophages and dendritic cells. In this review, we present the overview of molecular mechanisms and biological significance of dead cell clearance.