Original title: Bi-layered living cellular constructs promote recruitment and activation of an M2 macrophage phenotype
The researchers wounded a living construct that mimics human skin and collected the liquid around it. That liquid contained proteins linked to attracting and activating immune cells. In lab tests, it drew monocytes—immune cells that can become macrophages—and helped activated cells take on an M2-like state. The results suggest the construct can send signals that may support wound healing.
Imagine a scraped knee covered with a dressing that releases a faint scent. The scent must both call helpers over and influence what they do once they arrive. In this paper, the released scent stands for substances from the wounded skin-like construct, and the helpers stand for immune cells that are recruited and shifted toward a wound-healing state.
Wound dressings and skin substitutes can do more than cover an injury: this work suggests a living skin-like construct may help shape the immune response around a wound. That matters because the recruited cells can take on an M2-like state linked in the abstract to wound healing.
The abstract reports lab experiments using a skin-like construct and THP-1 cells. It does not establish that these effects occur in patients, improve healing in a living wound, or show how long the effects last. The M2-like state is assessed by flow cytometry, but the abstract does not specify the markers used.
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Bi-layered living cellular constructs promote recruitment and activation of an M2 macrophage phenotype — Justin T. Avery, Steven M. Zabroski, Hattie E. Hensley et al. — Frontiers in Immunology — doi:10.3389/fimmu.2026.1917691
Abstract licence: CC BY
Explanation generated by Synthesis from the abstract — it is not the original paper.