ArticleNature communications2020
Macrophages employ quorum licensing to regulate collective activation.
Article in Nature communications, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 32 papers.
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Who cites it
32 citing papers in PubMed.
- Macrophages tune responses to pathogen dynamics through TLR4 stimulation memory and by licensing susceptibility to IL-10.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Heritable single-cell gene expression states shape functional variability in innate immune responses.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Unsupervised Variational-Autoencoder-Based Analysis of Morphological Representations in Magnetic-Nanoparticle-Treated Macrophages.Bioengineering (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Article
- AI-based hardware and software tools in microscopy to boost research in immunology and virology.Frontiers in immunology · 2025Review
- Electrospun nanofiber mats caged the mammalian macrophages on their surfaces and prevented their inflammatory responses independent of the fiber diameter.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Macro- and micro-scale culture environment differentially regulate the effects of crowding on macrophage function.Biotechnology and bioengineering · 2024Article
- Evidence of collective influence in innate sensing using fluidic force microscopy.Frontiers in immunology · 2024Article
- Unraveling IFN-I response dynamics and TNF crosstalk in the pathophysiology of systemic lupus erythematosus.Frontiers in immunology · 2024Article
- Macrophage states: there's a method in the madness.Trends in immunology · 2023Review
- Processing stimulus dynamics by the NF-κB network in single cells.Experimental & molecular medicine · 2023Review
- Simultaneous CRISPR screening and spatial transcriptomics reveals intracellular, intercellular, and functional transcriptional circuits.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2023Article
- Rapid recruitment and IFN-I-mediated activation of monocytes dictate focal radiotherapy efficacy.Science immunology · 2023Article
- Quantifying stimulus-response specificity to probe the functional state of macrophages.Cell systems · 2023Article
- Article
- Live-cell imaging reveals single-cell and population-level infection strategies ofFrontiers in immunology · 2023Article
- Single-cell analysis reveals TLR-induced macrophage heterogeneity and quorum sensing dictate population wide anti-inflammatory feedback in response to LPS.Frontiers in immunology · 2023Article
- Culture density influences the functional phenotype of human macrophages.Frontiers in immunology · 2023Article
- Revising immune cell coordination: Origins and importance of single-cell variation.European journal of immunology · 2022Review
- Emergence of synchronized multicellular mechanosensing from spatiotemporal integration of heterogeneous single-cell information transfer.Cell systems · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Macrophage-initiated inflammation is tightly regulated to eliminate threats such as infections while suppressing harmful immune activation. However, individual cells' signaling responses to pro-inflammatory cues are heterogeneous, with subpopulations emerging with high or low activation states. Here, we use single-cell tracking and dynamical modeling to develop and validate a revised model for lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced macrophage activation that invokes a mechanism we term quorum licensing. The results show that bimodal phenotypic partitioning of macrophages is primed during the resting state, dependent on cumulative history of cell density, predicted by extrinsic noise in transcription factor expression, and independent of canonical LPS-induced intercellular feedback in the tumor necrosis factor (TNF) response. Our analysis shows how this density-dependent coupling produces a nonlinear effect on collective TNF production. We speculate that by linking macrophage density to activation, this mechanism could amplify local responses to threats and prevent false alarms.
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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.