ArticleAmerican journal of respiratory cell and molecular biology2008
Overexpression of apoptotic cell removal receptor MERTK in alveolar macrophages of cigarette smokers.
Article in American journal of respiratory cell and molecular biology, 2008. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 40 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
40 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 64 citations in OpenAlex.
- Efferocytosis and inflammation: a bibliometric and systematic analysis.Frontiers in medicine · 2025Pooled it
- Cluster Headache Genomewide Association Study and Meta-Analysis Identifies Eight Loci and Implicates Smoking as Causal Risk Factor.Annals of neurology · 2023Pooled it
- Gene Expression Analysis to Assess the Relevance of Rodent Models to Human Lung Injury.American journal of respiratory cell and molecular biology · 2017Pooled it
- Apoptotic-Cell Accumulation and Mertk Expression Are Linked to Diminished Antiviral CD8Immune network · 2026Article
- When clearance fails: the role of efferocytosis in COPD.European respiratory review : an official journal of the European Respiratory Society · 2026Review
- Dissecting metabolic landscape of alveolar macrophage.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Tissue-Resident Alveolar Macrophages Reduce Ozone-induced Inflammation via MerTK-mediated Efferocytosis.American journal of respiratory cell and molecular biology · 2024Article
- Tobacco smoke exposure recruits inflammatory airspace monocytes that establish permissive lung niches forScience translational medicine · 2023Article
- Tissue-resident alveolar macrophages reduce ObioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2023Article
- Microvesicle-Mediated Communication Within the Alveolar Space: Mechanisms of Uptake by Epithelial Cells and Alveolar Macrophages.Frontiers in immunology · 2022Article
- TLR4 is required for macrophage efferocytosis during resolution of ventilator-induced lung injury.American journal of physiology. Lung cellular and molecular physiology · 2021Article
- Participation of ABCA1 Transporter in Pathogenesis of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.International journal of molecular sciences · 2021Review
- Assessment of Alveolar Macrophage Dysfunction Using anFrontiers in medicine · 2021Article
- Recent advances in dead cell clearance during acute lung injury and repair.Faculty reviews · 2021Review
- Corrected Super-Resolution Microscopy Enables Nanoscale Imaging of Autofluorescent Lung Macrophages.Biophysical journal · 2020Article
- Alveolar Macrophage Immunometabolism and Lung Function Impairment in Smoking and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.American journal of respiratory and critical care medicine · 2020Article
- Differences in key genes in human alveolar macrophages between phenotypically normal smokers and nonsmokers: diagnostic and prognostic value in lung cancer.International journal of clinical and experimental pathology · 2020Article
- Gas6/TAM Axis in Sepsis: Time to Consider Its Potential Role as a Therapeutic Target.Disease markers · 2019Review
- Effect of Polarization and Chronic Inflammation on Macrophage Expression of Heparan Sulfate Proteoglycans and Biosynthesis Enzymes.The journal of histochemistry and cytochemistry : official journal of the Histochemistry Society · 2019Review
- Association between Genetic Variations of MERTK and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease in Koreans.Journal of Korean medical science · 2018Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Mononuclear phagocytes play an important role in the removal of apoptotic cells by expressing cell surface receptors that recognize and remove apoptotic cells. Based on the knowledge that cigarette smoking is associated with increased lung cell turnover, we hypothesized that alveolar macrophages (AMs) of normal cigarette smokers may exhibit enhanced expression of apoptotic cell removal receptor genes. AMs obtained by bronchoalveolar lavage of normal nonsmokers (n = 11) and phenotypic normal smokers (n = 13; 36 +/- 6 pack-years) were screened for mRNA expression of all known apoptotic cell removal receptors using Affymetrix HG-U133 Plus 2.0 microarray chips with TaqMan RT-PCR confirmation. Of the 14 known apoptotic receptors expressed, only MER tyrosine kinase (MERTK), a transmembrane tyrosine kinase receptor, was significantly up-regulated in smokers. MERTK expression was then assessed in AMs of smokers versus nonsmokers by TaqMan RT-PCR, immunocytochemistry, Western analysis, and flow analysis. Smoker AMs had up-regulation of MERTK mRNA levels (smoker vs. nonsmoker: 3.6-fold by microarray, P < 0.003; 9.5-fold by TaqMan RT-PCR, P < 0.02). Immunocytochemistry demonstrated a qualitative increase in MERTK protein expression on AMs of smokers. Increased protein expression of MERTK on AMs of smokers was confirmed by Western and flow analyses (P < 0.007 and P < 0.0002, respectively). MERTK, a cell surface receptor that recognizes apoptotic cells, is expressed on human AMs, and its expression is up-regulated in AMs of cigarette smokers. This up-regulation of MERTK may reflect an increased demand for removal of apoptotic cells in smokers, an observation with implications for the development of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, a disorder associated with dysregulated apoptosis of lung parenchymal cells.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.