**7. Conclusions**

Historically most investigations with regard to phagocytosis have focused on the role of myeloid cells as professional phagocytes. In this review, we have discussed nonmyeloid cell types, where roles in phagocytosis have been established. It is becoming increasingly evident that many tissue types are capable, to some extent, of phagocytosis [173]. Indeed, there are even situations of specialized phagocytic function, such as that observed in the retinal epithelia and angiophagy in vascular endothelial cells. Despite nonprofessional phagocytes being less effective when it comes to pathogen recognition, internalization, phagosome maturation, and pathogen killing, they still provide a significant contribution to phagocytosis, and, in more immune-privileged tissues, phagocytosis by nonprofessional phagocytes is imperative to maintain physiological functions.
