Phagocytosis by Thrombocytes is a Conserved Innate Immune Mechanism in Lower Vertebrates
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Thrombocytes, nucleated hemostatic blood cells of non-mammalian vertebrates, are regarded as the functional equivalent of anucleated mammalian platelets. Additional immune functions, including phagocytosis, have also been suggested for thrombocytes, but no conclusive molecular or cellular experimental evidence for their potential ingestion and clearance of infiltrating microbes has been provided till date. In the present study, we demonstrate the active phagocytic ability of thrombocytes in lower vertebrates using teleost fishes and amphibian models. Ex vivo, common carp thrombocytes were able to ingest live bacteria as well as latex beads (0.5-3 μm in diameter) and kill the bacteria. In vivo, we found that thrombocytes represented nearly half of the phagocyte population in the common carp total peripheral blood leukocyte pool. Phagocytosis efficiency was further enhanced by serum opsonization. Particle internalization led to phagolysosome fusion and killing of internalized bacteria, pointing to a robust ability for microbe elimination. We find that this potent phagocytic activity is shared across teleost (Paralichthys olivaceus) and amphibian (Xenopus laevis) models examined, implying its conservation throughout the lower vertebrate lineage. Our results provide novel insights into the dual nature of thrombocytes in the immune and homeostatic response and further provide a deeper understanding of the potential immune function of mammalian platelets based on the conserved and vestigial functions.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".