Transcriptional profiling of macrophage plasticity following recovery from Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) tolerance

To investigate the plasticity of Lipolysaccharide (LPS) tolerance, we employed microarray profiling to analyse the gene expression profile in macrophage. Four macrophage populations were induced; Untreated macrophages (Control group), Acute response to LPS (LPS activation group), LPS tolerance (T – Tolerant group) and recovered (R = recovered macrophage group) Using transcriptional analysis we demonstrate that recovery from LPS tolerance (R – Recovery), as defined by cytokine gene expression, is associated with a global change in the transcriptional profile of macrophage. This data confirms that LPS tolerance is a transient state which results in induction of novel hybrid macrophage activation state with a unique transcriptional signature. Bone marrow derived macrophages were polarised into three activation states; Acute response to LPS (A), LPS tolerant (T) and recovered (R). Gene expression was measured at 4 hours post stimulation with LPS. Three independent experiments were performed to measure gene expression changes between each macrophage group.