Assays

The liver comprises the body´s largest pool of macrophages constituting approximately 80 % of all sessile tissue macrophages of the body. After liver damage monocyte-derived macrophages are recruited into the liver and were here affected by a micro milieu which is considerably influenced by hepatocytes. Up to now the complex network that determines the differentiation and function of liver macrophages and the impact of the intercellular communication between macrophages and the other parenchymal ...

We describe a distinct macrophage population, whose presence in the liver during homoeostasis depends on recruitment signals mediated by the chemokine receptor CCR2. The identified polarization state of this population closely resembles that induced in co-culture experiments, where hepatocytes are reducing the availability of TGFb to macrophages. Accordingly, disruption of TGFb signal transduction in macrophages phenocopies the influence of hepatocytes on macrophage polarization.

Transcriptomics: the RNA expression of primary hepatocytes and BMDM (Bone Marrow–Derived acrophages) were analysed in 4 different conditions (mono- vs. co-culture, hepatocytes and macrophages) with 5 replicas each to detect the impact of hepatocytes on macrophages and vice versa.