By Pankaj, US Correspondent, [RxPG] Macrophages have been shown to perform both injury-inducing and reparative tasks during inflammation. In the January 3 issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Jeremy Duffield and colleagues from the University of Edinburgh examined macrophage function in the injury and recovery phases of liver fibrosis in mice. They found that macrophages promote scarring during liver injury but enhance the breakdown of fibrotic tissue during recovery. The study is the first to demonstrate that functionally distinct populations of macrophages exists within the same tissue and that they play critical roles in both the injury and recovery phases of inflammatory scarring.
Scott Friedman from Mount Sinai School of Medicine discusses this important finding in an accompanying commentary.
