Pharmacologically Directed Cell Disposal: Labeling Damaged Cells for Phagocytosis as a Strategy against Acute Pancreatitis

The scheme of clearance of a pancreatic necrotic cell labeled with synthetic “eat-me” marks. Each synthetic molecule consists of “eat-me” fragments (cube and star), such as phospho-L-serine and calreticulin, and the block that recognizes the acinar cells dying by necrosis (cross and diamond). Note that the apoptotic cell externalizes the endogenous engulfment signaling molecules. The receptors for these “eat-me” molecules (callout and chevron) are coded with the same colors as their ligands.