PMID- 10574763
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 20000511
LR  - 20191210
IS  - 0960-9822 (Print)
IS  - 0960-9822 (Linking)
VI  - 9
IP  - 22
DP  - 1999 Nov 18
TI  - The human homologue of Caenorhabditis elegans CED-6 specifically promotes
      phagocytosis of apoptotic cells.
PG  - 1351-4
AB  - A key feature of the process of programmed cell death (apoptosis) is the
      efficiency with which the dying cells are recognized and engulfed by phagocytes
      [1]. Apoptotic cells are rapidly cleared either by neighbouring cells acting as
      semi-professional phagocytes or by experts of the macrophage line, so that an
      inflammatory response is avoided [2]. The Caenorhabditis elegans gene ced-6 is
      required for efficient engulfment of apoptotic cells [3] and is one of a group of
      genes that define two partially redundant parallel pathways for the engulfment
      process [4] [5]. These pathways may be conserved across evolution, as two other
      engulfment genes have human homologues. A CED-5 homologue is part of a human
      CrkII-DOCK180-Rac signaling pathway proposed to mediate cytoskeletal
      reorganization [6] [7] [8] and a CED-7 homologue is similar to the ABC
      transporters [9] [10]. Here, we report the cloning and characterization of human 
      CED-6, a human homologue of C. elegans CED-6. The 34 kDa hCED-6 protein is
      expressed in most tissues, some human cancer cells, and in primary human
      macrophages. We developed an assay that quantitates the phagocytic activity of
      mammalian macrophages: the number of apoptotic cells that have been internalized 
      is measured by the uptake of lacZ-positive apoptotic cells by adherent transgenic
      macrophages. The results of this assay demonstrate that overexpression of hCED-6 
      promotes phagocytosis only of apoptotic cells and suggest that hCED-6 is the
      mammalian orthologue of C. elegans CED-6 and is a part of a highly conserved
      pathway that specifically mediates the phagocytosis of apoptotic cells.
FAU - Smits, E
AU  - Smits E
AD  - Devgen N.V., Gent, 9052, Belgium. elke.smits@devgen.com
FAU - Van Criekinge, W
AU  - Van Criekinge W
FAU - Plaetinck, G
AU  - Plaetinck G
FAU - Bogaert, T
AU  - Bogaert T
LA  - eng
SI  - GENBANK/AF191771
PT  - Comparative Study
PT  - Journal Article
PL  - England
TA  - Curr Biol
JT  - Current biology : CB
JID - 9107782
RN  - 0 (Apoptosis Regulatory Proteins)
RN  - 0 (CED-6 protein, C elegans)
RN  - 0 (Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins)
RN  - 0 (Phosphoproteins)
RN  - 0 (RNA, Messenger)
RN  - 0 (Recombinant Fusion Proteins)
SB  - IM
MH  - Animals
MH  - *Apoptosis
MH  - Apoptosis Regulatory Proteins
MH  - Base Sequence
MH  - Caenorhabditis elegans/genetics/metabolism
MH  - *Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins
MH  - Cell Count
MH  - Choriocarcinoma/pathology
MH  - Cloning, Molecular
MH  - Evolution, Molecular
MH  - Female
MH  - Humans
MH  - Macrophages/physiology
MH  - Molecular Sequence Data
MH  - Phagocytosis/genetics/*physiology
MH  - Phosphoproteins/genetics/*physiology
MH  - RNA, Messenger/analysis
MH  - Recombinant Fusion Proteins/physiology
MH  - Species Specificity
MH  - Tumor Cells, Cultured
MH  - Uterine Neoplasms/pathology
EDAT- 1999/11/27 09:00
MHDA- 2000/05/16 09:00
CRDT- 1999/11/27 09:00
PHST- 1999/11/27 09:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2000/05/16 09:00 [medline]
PHST- 1999/11/27 09:00 [entrez]
AID - S0960-9822(00)80062-7 [pii]
AID - 10.1016/s0960-9822(00)80062-7 [doi]
PST - ppublish
SO  - Curr Biol. 1999 Nov 18;9(22):1351-4. doi: 10.1016/s0960-9822(00)80062-7.