Measuring apoptotic cell engulfment (efferocytosis) efficiency

Abstract

Efferocytosis is the process of recognizing and removing dead and dying cells, performed by a variety of phagocytic cells including macrophages. It has recently been shown that liver X receptor (LXR) signaling in macrophages regulates the expression of important efferocytosis receptors, bridging and signaling molecules. Here we describe a sensitive yet robust efferocytosis assay, optimized to measure bone marrow-derived macrophage (BMDM) apoptotic cell engulfment capability. This assay can be applied to genetically or pharmacologically altered BMDMs.