Macrophages are the reason your body has immunity over foreign invaders. They are a special type of white blood cell that engulfs unrecognized cells in your body and initiate an immune response. They are present in every tissue of your body, acting as a patrol unit, looking out for unfamiliar cells in your tissues. When they detect a foreign cell, e.g., a cancer cell, in a tissue, they ingest it and forward it to your lymphocytes (another important immune-response initiator) to carry out the remaining immunity function.
Macrophages
Scientists see a promising future for the world of medicine, in these microscopic cells. They believe that there is a bigger chance the body can combat foreign cells, particularly cancer cells when there is a larger population of macrophages in the body. However, the only way to multiply these cells to such a needed population is when they are being bred in the lab. Scientists knew this, but the challenge has been that they did not know if the macrophages would still retain their function and identity as the naturally-occurring ones in the body, after they have been cultured for a certain period away from the body, in the laboratory environment.
This called for more research and experiments to be carried out, and recently a team of scientists from Dresden and Marseille discovered something interesting.
The Study
The team, led by Professor Sieweke, experimented to study the macrophages living in the air sacs of mouse lungs. They extracted a few of these cells and cultured them for several months in the lab on plastic Petri dishes, multiplying them, and monitoring their growth. They studied their gene pattern and compared them to that of the natural cells inside the mouse’s body, and they found significant differences. They expected this, of course. The cultured cells adapted to their new environment – a plastic surface and a full dose of needed-nutrient (as against those readily available to the naturally-occurring ones) – so they were not expecting a similar gene pattern between both groups of cells. It was at this point that they became quite unsure of what the result would be: they wanted to find out if these cells would eventually be able to adjust to the natural condition when they are being returned into the body.
Read Also: Researchers Find Way to Fight Bacteria with Viruses More Effectively
After a while, they moved the cultured macrophages back into the mouse, to their natural position in the lungs. Then, they compared both groups again and discovered that the cultured macrophages were in no way different from the natural ones. The immune cells in the mouse did not see them as foreign invaders, and they (the cultured macrophages) retained their functions. The team was surprised by this result, and happy that there is hope for better cell therapies in the future. They are currently carrying out more experiments, trying to improve on the discovery, to make it work for humans too.
Clinical significance
Scientists have always known that finding a way to increase the population of macrophages in the body would help improve cell therapies where cancer cells, bacteria, and other foreign bodies, would not stand a chance in their presence. Therefore, this discovery is an important one, and, has prepared the ground for better cell therapy strategies to be innovated.
Read Also: The Bacterial Toxin Colibactin Revives Inactive Viruses in Other Microbes
Final thoughts
This discovery indeed provides a promising future in the world of medicine. There is a possibility that cancer and other life-threatening diseases would have a cure soon.
