The process of phagocytosis is crucial for fighting infection in innate immunity, for maintaining homeostasis through clearing cell debris, and for tissue remodeling in development. Here we describe two semi-automated image-based assays for the quantitative characterization of the early stages of phagocytosis and pathogen entry. A feature of these assays is the ability to detect and assess molecules or agents that subtly affect the stages both before and after cup closure or internalization.
Keywords: Fluorescent imaging; Image-based; ImageJ; Macrophage; Phagocytosis; Quantitative assay; Salmonella.