Concept
In anatomy the term "reticuloendothelial system" (abbreviated RES), often associated nowadays with the mononuclear phagocyte system (MPS), was originally launched by the beginning of the 20th century to denote a system of specialised cells that effectively clear colloidal vital stains (so called because they stain living cells) from the blood circulation. The term is still used today, but its meaning has changed over the years, and is used inconsistently in present-day literature. Although RES is commonly associated exclusively with macrophages, recent research has revealed that the cells that accumulate intravenously administrated vital stain belong to a highly specialised group of cells called scavenger endothelial cells (SECs), that are not macrophages. In the 1920s, the founder of the term RES, Ludwig Aschoff, reviewed the field of vital staining, and concluded that the cells lining the hepatic sinusoids are by far the most numerous and important cells accumulating intravenously administered vital stains in mammals and other vertebrates. Cells lining the lymph sinuses, and the capillaries of the adrenals, pituitary and bone marrow also accumulated vital stains, yet to a lower extent. Based on these observations Aschoff in his review concluded that these were the organs housing the cells of the RES, in the narrow sense of the term. At the time when the notion of RES was launched, the understanding of concepts like endothelium, macrophages and phagocytosis were immature compared to what we know today, and during the centennium that followed there has been a considerable change in the way we understand these terms today. During the years that followed after Aschoff had launched the concept of RES, research on macrophages and their feature as professional phagocytes steadily increased, and in 1960 the concept of the mononuclear phagocyte system was proposed to denote all cells identified as macrophages. The cells of MPS, by way of their common functional signature as professional phagocytes, clear particulate matter such as bacteria, fungi, viruses, and dying cells from the circulation.