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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2015 Oct 1.
Published in final edited form as: Transfusion. 2014 Sep 4;54(10):2365–2371. doi: 10.1111/trf.12848

Figure 1. Macrophage-RBC interactions between macrophage surface receptors and RBC ligands (“eat me” signals).

Figure 1

Cell-surface receptors on macrophages recognize various ligands expressed or newly-exposed on RBC surfaces, which signal macrophages to initiate erythrophagocytosis. All indicated RBC ligands function as “eat me” signals, except for CD47, which is both an “eat me” and a “don’t eat me” signal.3

Abbreviations: βGal: terminal β-Galactose residue; PS: phosphatidylserine; Gas6: growth-arrest 6 protein; MFG-E8: milk-fat globule protein-E8; SIRP-α: signal regulatory protein-α; ASGR: asialo-glycoprotein receptor; CR3: complement receptor 3; FcγR: Fc gamma receptor; PS-R; PS receptor; MER: c-mer proto-oncogene protein; αVβ5: an integrin subtype.

Red text: “don’t eat me” signal; black text: “eat me” signal