"This work opens up a completely new view on electrophysiology; now, we have a new cell type on the map that is involved in conduction," says senior author Matthias Nahrendorf, a systems biologist at Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School. "Macrophages are famous for sensing their environment and changing their phenotype very drastically, so you can think about a situation where there is inflammation in the heart that may alter conduction, and we now need to look at whether these cells are causally involved in conduction abnormalities."
Nahrendorf showed the results to his colleagues, David Milan and Patrick Ellinor, both electrophysiologists at Massachusetts General Hospital, who responded by opening the doors to their labs. Together, the teams found that macrophages extend their cell membranes between cardiac cells and create pores, also called gap junctions, for the electrical current to flow through. The macrophages contribute by preparing the conducting heart cells for the next burst of electricity so conducting cells are able to keep up with a fast contraction rhythm.
The group will follow up by looking at whether macrophages are involved in common conduction abnormalities. There are also potential connections between macrophages and anti-inflammatory drugs, which are widely reported to help with heart disease. If macrophages do play a role in disease, the researchers say it can open up a new line of therapeutics, as these immune cells naturally consume foreign molecules in their presence and are easy to target as a result.
Revealed by Cell Press.
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