Roles of Macrophage Subtypes in Bowel Anastomotic Healing and Anastomotic Leakage.

Jinyao Shi,Jiafu Ji,Zhouqiao Wu,Ziyu Li

doi:10.1155/2018/6827237

Jinyao Shi, Jiafu Ji + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1155/2018/6827237

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Abstract

Macrophages play an important role in host defense, in addition to the powerful ability to phagocytose pathogens or foreign matters. They fulfill a variety of roles in immune regulation, wound healing, and tissue homeostasis preservation. Macrophages are characterized by high heterogeneity, which can polarize into at least two major extremes, M1-type macrophages (classical activation) which are normally derived from monocytes and M2-type macrophages (alternative activation) which are mostly those tissue-resident macrophages. Based on the wound healing process in skin, the previous studies have documented how these different subtypes of macrophages participate in tissue repair and remodeling, while the mechanism of macrophages in bowel anastomotic healing has not yet been established. This review summarizes the currently available evidence regarding the different roles of polarized macrophages in the physiological course of anastomotic healing and their pathological roles in anastomotic leakage, the most dangerous complication after gastrointestinal surgery.

Highlights

Macrophages are myeloid immune cells that play a central role in inflammation and host defense [1, 2]
As polarization is the premise for macrophages to exert their diverse biological functions, different polarized macrophages play different roles in the physiological process of anastomotic healing and pathogenesis of anastomotic leakage (AL)
Reacquainting AL in the perspective of macrophages contributes to the exploration of new diagnostic tools and therapeutic targets

Summary

Introduction

Macrophages are myeloid immune cells that play a central role in inflammation and host defense [1, 2]. In contrast to monocyte-derived macrophages which participate in an antibacterial process during acute inflammatory response, tissue-resident macrophages express different functional properties and play a central role in maintaining tissue architecture, function, and homeostasis [22,23,24,25], and their role in anastomotic healing is further discussed below. Those two types of macrophages perform diverse functional phenotypes in response to microenvironmental signals, like microbial products, damaged cells, and cytokines from activated lymphocytes.

Results

Conclusion