Hepatocytes induces properties of wound healing type and regulatory macrophages in co-cultivated BMDM

The liver comprises the body´s largest pool of macrophages constituting approximately 80 % of all sessile tissue macrophages of the body. After liver damage monocyte-derived macrophages are recruited into the liver and were here affected by a micro milieu which is considerably influenced by hepatocytes. Up to now the complex network that determines the differentiation and function of liver macrophages and the impact of the intercellular communication between macrophages and the other parenchymal and non-parenchymal cell types of the liver is not well understood. The present study investigates the role of the intercellular communication between macrophages and hepatocytes on macrophage differentiation and function. Under physiological conditions the sinusoidal endothelial cell layer and the space of Dissé separate macrophages and hepatocytes from each other. Therefore the study focuses on the impact of the intercellular communication via soluble mediators on the differentiation of bone marrow derived macrophages (BMDM), which were recruited to the liver after liver injury, in co-culture models with highly purified primary murine hepatocytes embedded in a sandwich collagen matrix.