From: ((Steven B. Harris))
Subject: Re: What does "reticulo-endothelial" mean ???
Date: 06 Jul 1995
Newsgroups: sci.med

In <eeeDB890z.8F0@netcom.com> eee@netcom.com (Mark Thorson) writes:

>There is an organization called the Japan Reticulo-Endothelial Society.
>Can someone tell me what they're about, and what "reticulo-endothelial"
>means?


Oh, it's probably just an excuse to get away from home and drink sake
with the guys.

Seriously, the RT system is a bunch of macrophages which line the
sinuses, and hang out in the reticulum of your organs and connective
tissues (the reticulum is the framework that the organ is made with, the
support for the organ-specific cells).  These things don't participate
in the organ's job, rather they are like cops walking a beat in your
neighborhood between the houses, or in an industrial complex, between
the factory buildings, looking for crooks or other problems.  RT
cells grab antigens (dye molecules, microbes, foreign particles of any
kind), chew them up, and present them to immune effector cells for
tasting and further action.

                                                Steve Harris, M.D.