Heme exposure induces the phenotype of Hmox1high, Marcohigh, and MHC class IIlow macrophages

Bulk RNA sequencing revealed that heme exposure induced the phenotype of Hmox1high, Marcohigh, and MHC class IIlow macrophages, demonstrating a strong expression of NRF2-regulated. However, these cells showed weak expression of the TAM marker genes Arg1 and Spp1, indicating that heme treatment alone was insufficient to induce the full heme-TAM phenotype. Overall design: BMDMs were either treated with heme-albumin or albumin (control). For each condition 3 samples were prepared.