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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2016 Jul 1.
Published in final edited form as: Transfusion. 2015 Jul;55(0):S47–S58. doi: 10.1111/trf.13147

Figure 1.

Figure 1

Antibody-mediated destruction or alteration of a red blood cell (RBC). An effector cell recognizes an RBC by antibodies that are bound to the RBC’s cell membrane. Three mechanisms can lead to the RBC’s destruction or alteration: (i) An RBC is engulfed by a macrophage (MΦ) and lysed intracellularly (phagocytosis). (ii) An RBC is partially phagocytized (fragmentation), but the altered RBC (spherocytes) escapes the immune attack by the macrophage (MΦ) and remains circulating. (iii) An RBC is attacked by a macrophage (MΦ) and lysed extracellularly (ADCC, antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity). Modified from Garratty.2