Phosphatase regulation of macrophage activation

Macrophages are innate immune cells that play critical roles in tissue homeostasis and the immune response to invading pathogens or tumor cells. A hallmark of macrophages is their "plasticity," that is, their ability to respond to cues in their local microenvironment and adapt their activation state or phenotype to mount an appropriate response. During the inflammatory response, macrophages may be required to mount a profound anti-bacterial or anti-tumor response, an anti-inflammatory response, an anti-parasitic response, or a wound healing response. To do so, macrophages express cell surface receptors for growth factors, chemokines and cytokines, as well pathogen and danger associated molecular patterns. Downstream of these cell surface receptors, cell signalling cascades are activated and deactivated by reversible and competing activities of lipid and protein kinases and phosphatases. While kinases drive the activation of cell signalling pathways critical for macrophage activation, the strength and duration of the signalling is regulated by phosphatases. Hence, gene knockout mouse models have revealed critical roles for lipid and protein phosphatases in macrophage activation. Herein, we describe our current understanding and the key roles of specific cellular phosphatases in the regulation of the quality of macrophage polarization as well as the quantity of cytokines produced by activated macrophages.