. 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

Table 2.

Immune cells known to cause hemolysis

Cell type	Hemolysis		Cell type carries Fc-receptors
Cell type	Phagocytosis & Fragmentation	ADCC	Cell type carries Fc-receptors
Monocytes/macrophages^*	Yes^1,16,17,23	Yes²³	Yes
Granulocytes^†	Yes²⁴	Yes²⁵	Yes
Dendritic cells	Yes²⁶	No^26‡	Yes
Natural Killer (NK) cells	No^27§	Yes^28–30	Yes
Cytotoxic T cells^‖	No³¹	Yes^32–34	Yes

Macrophage names vary depending on the tissue: Kupffer cell (liver), Langerhans cell (dermis), microglia (brain), and osteoclast (bone). They also occur as subcapsular sinusoidal or medullary macrophages (lymph node) or splenic, bone marrow, intestinal, alveolar and intraocular macrophages.³⁵ Monocytes can differentiate into dendritic cells, which is a different cell type.³⁶

^†

Neutrophils, eosinophils and basophils are called mast cells when found in tissues.

^‡

There is no ADCC by dendritic cells (APC – antigen presenting cells), forcing them to engulf cells, such as RBC, necessary for their antigen processing function.

^§

NK cells do not phagocytize RBC, but can function as phagocytes for other cell types.³⁷

^‖

also known as ‘Killer’ cytotoxic T cells