Efferocytosis in Health, Illness and Beyond: A Narrative Review

Our bodies generate many structures that are eventually destroyed, such as the webbing between digits in a fetus, nerve cells that cannot identify target cells during development, and cells that are recruited during an immune response. Our bodies constantly replace their cells. The human body undergoes 109 cell apoptosis on average per day; these cells need to be eliminated to stop their harmful contents from leaking out [1]. The primary phagocytic cell that carries out this crucial apoptotic cell clearance activity is the macrophage [2]. The term "efferocytosis," which means "to take to the grave" or "to bury," refers to this removal of dying or dead cells [3]. We here tend to highlight the importance of the phenomenon, the significance and the clinical conditions it is seen in.