MACROPHAGE SWITCHING: POLARIZATION AND MOBILIZATION AFTER TRAUMA

ABSTRACT Introduction: Trauma alters the immune response in numerous ways, affecting both the innate and adaptive responses. Macrophages play an important role in inflammation and wound healing following injury. We hypothesize that macrophages mobilize from the circulation to the site of injury and secondary sites after trauma, with a transition from proinflammatory (M1) shortly after trauma to anti-inflammatory (M2) at later time points. Methods: C57Bl6 mice (n = 6/group) underwent a polytrauma model using cardiac puncture/hemorrhage, pseudofemoral fracture, and liver crush injury. The animals were killed at several time points: uninjured, 24 h, and 7 days. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells, spleen, liver nonparenchymal cells, and lung were harvested, processed, and stained for flow cytometry. Macrophages were identified as CD68 + ; M1 macrophages were identified as iNOS + ; M2 macrophages as arginase 1 + . Results: We saw a slight presence of M1 macrophages at baseline in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (6.6%), with no significant change at 24 h and 7 days after polytrauma. In contrast, the spleen has a larger population of M1 macrophages at baseline (27.7%), with levels decreasing at 24 h and 7 days after trauma (20.6% and 12.6%, respectively). A similar trend is seen in the lung where at baseline 14.9% of CD68 + macrophages are M1, with subsequent continual decrease reaching 8.7% at 24 h and 4.4% at 7 days after polytrauma. M1 macrophages in the liver represent 14.3% of CD68 + population in the liver nonparenchymal cells at baseline. This percentage increases to 20.8% after trauma and decreases at 7 days after polytrauma (13.4%). There are few M2 macrophages in circulating peripheral blood mononuclear cells and in spleen at baseline and after trauma. The percentage of M2 macrophages in the lungs remains constant after trauma (7.2% at 24 h and 9.2% at 7 days). In contrast, a large proportion of M2 macrophages are seen in the liver at baseline (36.0%). This percentage trends upward and reaches 45.6% acutely after trauma and drops to 21.4% at 7 days. The phenotypic changes in macrophages seen in the lungs did not correlate with a functional change in the ability of the macrophages to perform oxidative burst, with an increase from 2.0% at baseline to 22.1% at 7 days after polytrauma ( P = 0.0258). Conclusion: Macrophage phenotypic changes after polytrauma are noted, especially with a decrease in the lung M1 phenotype and a short-term increase in the M2 phenotype in the liver. However, macrophage function as measured by oxidative burst increased over the time course of trauma, which may signify a change in subset polarization after injury not captured by the typical macrophage phenotypes.