Scanning electron micrograph of human macrophage. Macrophages are a type of white blood cell that engulfs and digests cellular debris, foreign substances, microbes, cancer cells, and anything else that does not have the types of proteins specific of healthy body cells on its surface in a process called phagocytosis. These large phagocytes are found in essentially all tissues, where they patrol for potential pathogens by amoeboid movement. They take various forms (with various names) throughout the body, but all are part of the mononuclear phagocyte system. Pseudomonas is a genus of Gram-negative, aerobic gammaproteobacteria, belonging to the family Pseudomonadaceae. Magnification 5500x, 8x10 print. |