Double Roles of Macrophages in Human Neuroimmune Diseases and Their Animal Models

Table 2

Roles of different functional subpopulations of macrophages in MS and EAE.

	Tissue resident macrophages; (microglia)	Monocyte-derived macrophages	Proinflammatory macrophages	Anti-inflammatory macrophages	Refs
MS	As competent APCs; Secretion of proinflammatory and neurotoxic molecules; Maintenance of CNS homeostasis; Immunosuppression	Eating myelin remnants; Secreting proinflammatory cytokines; Displaying an intermediate activation to suppress neuroinflammation and promote CNS repair	Excessive secretion of proinflammatory cytokines, ROI and NO	Phagocytosing debris; Promoting tissue repair; Increased anti-inflammatory macrophages in MS after treatment with glatiramer acetate	[66–77]
EAE	Promoting the development and inflammatory lesions in CNS in the early stage of EAE; Eliminating debris and suppressing cellular metabolism at EAE onset; Secretion of TGF-β to induce a protective process	Presenting antigen; Activating myelin-reactive T cells; Expressing adhesion molecules and chemokines to attract leukocyte infiltration into CNS; Activating some microglia to accelerate inflammation	Contributing to the establishment of early inflammation in EAE; Associating with EAE severity	Promoting the differentiation of Th2 cells and Tregs to suppress EAE severity; Inhibiting the development of Th17 cells	[30, 36, 37, 78–86]

APCs, antigen presenting cells; CNS, central nervous system; EAE, experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis; MS, multiple sclerosis; NO, nitric oxide; ROI, reactive oxygen intermediates; TGF-, transforming growth factor-; Th2, T helper 2; Th17, T helper 17; Tregs, regulatory T cells.