Muscle injury triggers inflammation in which infiltrating mononuclear phagocytes are crucial for tissue regeneration. The interaction of the CCL2/CCR2 and CX3CL1/CX3CR1 chemokine axis that guides phagocyte infiltration is incompletely understood.
Researchers show that CX3CR1 deficiency promotes muscle repair and rescues Ccl2−/− mice from impaired muscle regeneration as a result of altered macrophage function, not infiltration.
Transcriptomic analysis of muscle mononuclear phagocytes reveals that Apolipoprotein E (ApoE) is upregulated in mice with efficient regeneration.
ApoE treatment enhances phagocytosis by mononuclear phagocytes in vitro, and restores phagocytic activity and muscle regeneration in Ccl2−/− mice.
Because CX3CR1 deficiency may compensate for defective CCL2-dependant monocyte recruitment by modulating ApoE-dependent macrophage phagocytic activity, targeting CX3CR1 expressed by macrophages might be a powerful therapeutic approach to improve muscle regeneration.
http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2015/151203/ncomms9972/full/ncomms9972.html
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