title: "With a little help from my friends": efferocytosis as an antimicrobial mechanism.
abstract: The uptake of apoptotic cells by phagocytes is defined as efferocytosis. In this issue of Cell Host & Microbe, Martin et al. (2012) and Yang et al. (2012) report that macrophage- and neutrophil-mediated efferocytosis of apoptotic cells containing mycobacteria is an innate antibacterial effector mechanism.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA. vbriken@umd.edu
authors.forename: Volker
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Briken