摘要
In 1884, Elias Metschnikoff was first to report the cellular response to invading fungi in the water flea Daphnia. Blood cells, which he called phagocytes, surrounded and digested each invading spore. He hypothesized that this process, termed phagocytosis, was a general mechanism of host defense against an invading pathogen. One hundred years later, scientists have only begun to elucidate the complex mechanisms by which phagocytosis is regulated.
