The Effects of Macrophage Polarity on Influenza Virus Replication and Innate Immune Responses

Abstract

Different pathways of macrophage differentiation and activation lead to diverse macrophage phenotypes including expression of cell surface molecules, cytokine secretion and transcription profiles. Here we investigated in vitro the impact of inflammatory or anti-inflammatory polarization of human primary macrophages on their susceptibility to Influenza A virus infection and characterised innate immune responses in infected cells. M2 M-CSF+IL4 macrophages showed greater susceptibility to influenza A infection than M1 GM-CSF+interferon (IFN)γ macrophages.