Tissue-Resident Macrophages Are Locally Programmed for Silent Clearance of Apoptotic Cells.

ABSTRACT: Although apoptotic cells (ACs) contain nucleic acids that can be recognized by Toll-like receptors (TLRs), engulfment of ACs does not initiate inflammation in healthy organisms. Here we identified macrophage populations that continually engulf ACs in distinct tissues and found that these macrophages share characteristics compatible with immunologically silent clearance of ACs; such characteristics include high expression of AC recognition receptors, low expression of TLR9, and reduced TLR responsiveness to nucleic acids. Removal of the macrophages from tissues resulted in loss of many of these characteristics and the ability to generate inflammatory responses to AC-derived nucleic acids, suggesting that cues from the tissue microenvironment program macrophages for silent AC clearance. The

SUBMITTER: Roberts AW 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5728676 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature