No need to "sugar coat": Removing glycocalyx on apoptotic blebs promotes phagocytosis

Shannon M Kelley; Kodi S Ravichandran

doi:10.1016/j.devcel.2024.02.014

No need to "sugar coat": Removing glycocalyx on apoptotic blebs promotes phagocytosis

Dev Cell. 2024 Apr 8;59(7):827-829. doi: 10.1016/j.devcel.2024.02.014.

Authors

Shannon M Kelley¹, Kodi S Ravichandran²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Pathology and Immunology, Division of Immunobiology, Washington University School of Medicine, Saint Louis, MO, USA.
² Department of Pathology and Immunology, Division of Immunobiology, Washington University School of Medicine, Saint Louis, MO, USA; Department of Biomedical Molecular Biology, Ghent University, and the Inflammation Research Center, VIB, Ghent, Belgium. Electronic address: kodi@wustl.edu.

PMID: 38593785
DOI: 10.1016/j.devcel.2024.02.014

Abstract

The viscous glycocalyx of mammalian cells, composed of glucosaminoglycans, glycolipids, and glycoproteins, "sugar coat" the outer plasma membrane. In this issue of Developmental Cell, Le et al. (2024) show that the glycocalyx is removed from apoptotic blebs via disassembly of the cortical cytoskeleton, exposing the "eat-me" signals necessary for efferocytosis.

MeSH terms

Animals
Apoptosis
Cell Membrane
Glycocalyx*
Glycoproteins
Mammals
Phagocytosis

Substances

Glycoproteins