WIKIMEDIA, CHRISTOPH BOCK (MAX PLANCK INSTITUTE FOR INFORMATICS)Genome-wide epigenetic and transcription analyses of monocytes and macrophages have uncovered two crucial pathways driving macrophage training—a recently discovered form of innate immune memory—according to two studies published in Science today (September 25). Together with a third paper documenting the transcriptional diversity of early immune cell progenitors, the studies present the latest results from the ongoing European BLUEPRINT initiative, which aims to decipher the epigenomes of blood cells during health and disease.
“They did a very thorough transcriptomic and epigenomic analysis of these cells and . . . they uncover not just immunologic pathways, which would be expected, but also, interestingly, some metabolic pathways that may be important to the different immunologic phenotypes of these cells,” said Ofer Levy of Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School who was not involved in the studies.
Monocytes are part of the innate immune system. They circulate in the blood, but also exit to surrounding tissues, differentiate into macrophages, and patrol the body disposing of pathogens and dead cells. Under certain conditions, macrophages can become either tolerant of pathogens or trained to react against additional infections. This training of macrophages is a recently discovered process, and aside from providing a ...
