Foreign particles and apoptotic bodies are eliminated from the body by phagocytic leucocytes. The initial stage of the elimination process is the internalization of the particles into a plasma membrane-derived vacuole known as the phagosome. Such nascent phagosomes, however, lack the ability to kill pathogens or to degrade the ingested targets. These properties are acquired during the course of...

Pulmonary intravascular macrophages are an important part of the mononuclear phagocyte system in some species of mammals, mainly sheep and other ruminants, pigs, and horses. These cells phagocytize foreign particles, cell debris and pathogens that pass through the pulmonary circulation. Species with intravascular macrophages localize intravenously injected tracer particles and bacteria predomin...

With lymph node enlargement, the possibility of a malignant process such as metastatic carcinoma or lymphoma needs to be excluded. This report describes a 47 year old woman with inguinal lymph node enlargement initially suspicious for lymphoma. Fine needle aspiration findings favoured reactive hyperplasia, but a malignant process could not be excluded. The final histological diagnosis was a for...

Wear of high-density polyethylene on bone and cartilage has resulted in a large volume of plastic particles being shed into the two knees and two hips studied. The giant-cell foreign-body reaction of the synovium may not be sufficient to cope with the amount of debris presented and the destruction of the endosteal bone in one hip, caused by the wear particles and movement of the prosthesis, has...

conclusions surgical and post-surgical findings showed that this segment was not related to the patient’s femur. the foreign segment may have belonged to the other victim of this trauma. introduction femoral shaft fracture is one of the typical bone fractures due to high energy trauma and may occur as an open fracture. some foreign materials may enter the fracture site such as sand, cloth parti...

The respiratory tract must be open to the environment to allow exchange of gas between air and blood. This renders lhe lungs susceptible to colonization and infection by foreign organisms. It is necessary for lhe lower respiratory tract to have mechanisms to contain and control such foreign material. The gas exchange surface of lhe lung must be thin, delicate and permeable, rhus the mechanisms ...