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Updated: Aug 8, 2026

Bone Marrow-derived Macrophage Production
Published on: November 22, 2013
How do macrophages distinguish the living from the dead?
1Dept of Microbiology, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia. christina_cheers@muwayf.unimelb.edu.au
Abstract:
Injection of live but not dead bacteria induces a wave of IL-12 and subsequently, IFN-gamma production. Surprisingly, in vitro, both live and dead bacteria elicit IL-12 from macrophages. Better understanding of how macrophages distinguish live from dead bacteria would help explain this difference and possibly bypass the need for live vaccines against intracellular bacteria.
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