Discerning Alveolar Macrophage Ontogeny in Mice
Date
2023-06
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Abstract
The adaptive and innate immunity are the two branches of the immune system our body uses to defend against invading microbes. After each encounter with a pathogen, the adaptive immune system develops a memory to prevent an infection with the same microbe. This ability to remember has recently also been shown in the innate immune system and was termed “trained immunity”, describing the ability to generate a stronger response towards a broad range of pathogens despite infection with just a single pathogen. The lung is an organ directly exposed to the microbes in the outside world, making it a likely site for immune cells to develop trained immunity. The predominant innate immune cells that reside in the lungs are the alveolar macrophages. These cells encounter countless pathogens every day and therefore are a likely cell in which to study trained immunity. Our lab recently figured out how to watch the macrophages crawl inside the lungs of living animals and this study examined how these macrophages behaved under different conditions (Neupane et al, 2020). However, these macrophages only live for a few months, so cells from the bone marrow constantly replace the macrophages, meaning that there are always two types of macrophages present in the lung. However, without an effective labelling tool, it was previously impossible to distinguish between the two macrophage populations, making their differences in behavior and function unknown. This study utilized a unique model to look at the two different macrophages and visualize these cells inside a living mouse to look for behavioural similarities and differences. Our findings determined the behavioral and functional similarities of these macrophages at homeostasis, their responses against the influenza virus, and provided support for both populations to be trained against influenza.
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Keywords
Immunology, lung, virus, macrophage, imaging, intravital, monocyte, confocal
Citation
Zhang, W. X. (2023). Discerning alveolar macrophage ontogeny in mice (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.