bims-stacyt Biomed News
on Metabolism and the paracrine crosstalk between cancer and the organism
Issue of 2019–12–01
two papers selected by
Cristina Muñoz Pinedo, L’Institut d’Investigació Biomèdica de Bellvitge



  1. Bull Exp Biol Med. 2019 Nov 27.
      We studied the effect of short-term hypoxic stress on the phenotypic polarization of monocyte-derived macrophages and their secretory activity during interaction with mesenchymal stromal cells. In the presence of mesenchymal stromal cells, monocyte-derived macrophages exhibited the signs of M2 polarization, which was evidenced by increased expression of CD206 and CD163 markers, as well as increased transcription and translation of IL-6. Short-term hypoxic stress promoted a shift of macrophage phenotype from inflammatory M1 towards anti-inflammatory M2 in monoculture and co-culture with mesenchymal stromal cells. In addition to the immunoregulatory action, mesenchymal stromal cells demonstrated stromal activity and maintained high viability of monocyte-derived macrophages.
    Keywords:  hypoxia; monocytes/macrophages; multipotent mesenchymal stromal cells; phenotype polarization; secretome
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1007/s10517-019-04662-2
  2. Biochim Biophys Acta Mol Cell Res. 2019 Nov 21. pii: S0167-4889(19)30212-5. [Epub ahead of print]1867(2): 118604
      Macrophages (MO) are versatile cells, assuming distinct functional phenotypes depending on the activating stimulus and the microenvironment. The differential activation of macrophages is supported by profound intracellular metabolic changes, being well accepted that the M1/M(LPS+IFN-γ) phenotype rely on aerobic glycolysis, while M2/M(IL-4) macrophages depend on oxidative metabolism. On the other hand, although tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) are characterized by their high expression of M2/M(IL-4) markers, is currently unclear whether TAMs present the same oxidative metabolic profile of M2/M(IL-4) cells. Herein, we demonstrate for the first time that despite their high expression of M2/M(IL-4) markers, TAMs show high glycolytic activity, with high lactate secretion similar to the M1/M(LPS+ IFN-γ) phenotype. This activity seems to be essential for the M2 profile of TAMs, since the inhibition of glycolysis, but not the impairment of the oxidative phosphorylation or pentose phosphate pathway, diminished the expression of M2/M(IL-4) markers. These novel data indicate that TAMs, although are usually phenotyped as M2/M(IL-4)-like macrophages, they are metabolically distinct from these cells, being rather similar to M1/M(LPS+IFN-γ) macrophages, depending on the glycolytic metabolism to support their profile and functions.
    Keywords:  Glycolysis; Macrophage; Metabolism; Phenotype maintenance; Tumor-associated macrophages
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbamcr.2019.118604