video of a dendritic cell engulfing conidia
This is an awesome video of a dendritic cell performing phagocytosis on a conidia. Maybe I'm just a little weird (well, almost certainly), I just think it is awesome to see that such tiny things can actually have independent function. A quick explanation:
Dendritic cells are important in the innate (primary) immune system. They basically grab bits of antigens (things that should not be in the body) and present them to the rest of the immune system so that an appropriate response can occur.
Source: Wikipedia
Original video authors: Judith Behnsen, Priyanka Narang, Mike Hasenberg, Frank Gunzer, Ursula Bilitewski, Nina Klippel, Manfred Rohde, Matthias Brock, Axel A. Brakhage, Matthias Gunzer
