Role of Macrophages in Wound Healing

Abstract

Monocytes/macrophages are key components of the body's innate ability to restore tissue function after injury. In most tissues, both embryo-derived tissue-resident macrophages and recruited blood monocyte-derived macrophages contribute to the injury response. The developmental origin of injury-associated macrophages has a major impact on the outcome of the healing process. Macrophages are abundant at all stages of repair and coordinate the progression through the different phases of healing. They are highly plastic cells that continuously adapt to their environment and acquire phase-specific activation phenotypes. Advanced omics methodologies have revealed a vast heterogeneity of macrophage activation phenotypes and metabolic status at injury sites in different organs. In this review, we highlight the role of the developmental origin, the link between the wound phase-specific activation state and metabolic reprogramming as well as the fate of macrophages during the resolution of the wounding response.