Macrophage heterogeneity and its interactions with stromal cells in tumour microenvironment

Liren Cao; Xiaoyan Meng; Zhiyuan Zhang; Zhonglong Liu; Yue He

doi:10.1186/s13578-024-01201-z

Macrophage heterogeneity and its interactions with stromal cells in tumour microenvironment

Cell Biosci. 2024 Feb 1;14(1):16. doi: 10.1186/s13578-024-01201-z.

Authors

Liren Cao^#¹, Xiaoyan Meng^#¹, Zhiyuan Zhang^#², Zhonglong Liu^#³, Yue He^#⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Oral Maxillofacial & Head and Neck Oncology, National Clinical Research Center for Oral Disease, National Center of Stomatology, Shanghai Ninth People's Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, 200011, China.
² Department of Oral Maxillofacial & Head and Neck Oncology, National Clinical Research Center for Oral Disease, National Center of Stomatology, Shanghai Ninth People's Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, 200011, China. zhzhy0502@163.com.
³ Department of Oral Maxillofacial & Head and Neck Oncology, National Clinical Research Center for Oral Disease, National Center of Stomatology, Shanghai Ninth People's Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, 200011, China. zhonglong021@126.com.
⁴ Department of Oral Maxillofacial & Head and Neck Oncology, National Clinical Research Center for Oral Disease, National Center of Stomatology, Shanghai Ninth People's Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, 200011, China. william5218@126.com.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Macrophages and tumour stroma cells account for the main cellular components in the tumour microenvironment (TME). Current advancements in single-cell analysis have revolutionized our understanding of macrophage diversity and macrophage-stroma interactions. Accordingly, this review describes new insight into tumour-associated macrophage (TAM) heterogeneity in terms of tumour type, phenotype, metabolism, and spatial distribution and presents the association between these factors and TAM functional states. Meanwhile, we focus on the immunomodulatory feature of TAMs and highlight the tumour-promoting effect of macrophage-tumour stroma interactions in the immunosuppressive TME. Finally, we summarize recent studies investigating macrophage-targeted therapy and discuss their therapeutic potential in improving immunotherapy by alleviating immunosuppression.

Keywords: Macrophage heterogeneity; Macrophage–stroma interactions; Single-cell study; Tumour stroma; Tumour-associated macrophage.

Publication types

Review

Grants and funding

82173451/National Natural Science Foundation of China