Although macrophages are known as essential players in wound healing, their contribution to recovery from spinal cord injury is a subject of debate. Using a mouse model of spinal injury, Michal Schwartz and colleagues from the Weizmann institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel tested the effect of macrophages on the recovery process after injury and demonstrate an important anti-inflammatory role for a subset of infiltrating monocyte-derived macrophages that is dependent upon their expression of the anti-inflammatory molecule interleukin-10. These results suggest that this subset of macrophages may have a beneficial effect on spinal cord injuries.
Funding: MS holds the Maurice and Ilse Katz Professorial Chair in Neuroimmunology. The work was supported in part by the High Q Foundation, an NRSAD award, ERC award, and by IsrALS, given to MS. This work was supported also by the Israel Science Foundation, given to MS and SJ. SJ was supported by the MINERVA Foundation and by a joint ISF Bio-Med research grant, and is the incumbent of the Pauline Recanati Career Development Chair. The funders had no rolein study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
Citation: Shechter R, London A, Varol C, Raposo C, Cusimano M, et al. (2009) Infiltrating Blood-Derived Macrophages Are Vital Cells Playing an Anti-inflammatory Role in Recovery from Spinal Cord Injury in Mice. PLoS Med 6(7): e1000113. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1000113
Source: Public Library of Science