Lifelong Support

This is the study of a relationship that lasts a lifetime, but is just skin-deep. The sensory nerves that help us feel everything from a soft caress to a brutal cut are supported by specialised versions of immune cells called macrophages. But the processes that establish and maintain this relationship aren’t well understood. To investigate where the macrophages come from, and how they specialise to this particular role, researchers tracked the cells, probed their genetics, and ran experiments in the lab. They discovered that a molecule called TGF-β activates when in contact with the nerves and influences the macrophage identity and function, helping to recruit them (yellow around an injury to a mouse ear, pictured) to aid with repair and regeneration. In this way, nerves aren’t just sensing the world, they’re also shaping their own protection network.

Written by Anthony Lewis

Anthony Lewis

Writer

Ant was the web editor in the early days of BPoD, and has since worked with the UK’s top science organisations as a writer and multimedia producer. He now splits his time between freelance work and managing multimedia at The Lancet.

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• Image from work by Julia Kolter and Clarissa-Laura Döring, and colleagues
• Institute for Immunodeficiency, Center for Chronic Immunodeficiency, Medical Center and Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany
• Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution – NonCommercial – NoDerivs (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)
• Published in bioRxiv, February 2024 (not peer reviewed)