Macrophage differentiation

Human macrophages (MΦ) represent the crucial innate elements for the orchestration of adaptive immune responses, since they are present in all tissues of the body and display a large spectrum of phenotypic and functional features. These cells present a high level of plasticity and could be derived from the embryogenic precursors as well as circulatory blood monocytes. A series of different studies have uncovered how tissue-derived signals, soluble factors, and/or antigen stimulation may contribute to epigenetic, transcriptomic, and functional landscape of human MΦ. In this chapter, MΦ differentiation properties will be discussed, mostly focusing on how the new experimental and technological approaches are changing the bimodal human MΦ paradigm towards a much more diverse, tissue-adapted, and specialized panorama.