classical vs alternative macrophage activation

[Enkidu]

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When looking at inflammatory lesions, is there any relevance to the type of macrophage activation present, or the types of T-cells that are infiltrating? It seems like this information should be relevant in differentiating between different inflammatory conditions, but I haven't heard anything about it. Does the type of macrophage activation only matter in research?

It seems like inflammatory pathology has a lot of clinical correlation in it, but it seems like there should be some more specific immunophenotypic way to distinguish granulomas in sarcoid from granulomas in crohn's - (or whatever the inflammatory condition is, those may be bad examples).

 

[deleted314957]

When looking at inflammatory lesions, is there any relevance to the type of macrophage activation present, or the types of T-cells that are infiltrating? It seems like this information should be relevant in differentiating between different inflammatory conditions, but I haven't heard anything about it. Does the type of macrophage activation only matter in research?

It seems like inflammatory pathology has a lot of clinical correlation in it, but it seems like there should be some more specific immunophenotypic way to distinguish granulomas in sarcoid from granulomas in crohn's - (or whatever the inflammatory condition is, those may be bad examples).

In day-to-day hospital practice it does not mean s***.

 

[malchik]

. . . at the moment, anyway. But these are interesting questions that are being investigated, and it may turn out that more specific immunophenotyping of infiltrates will yield diagnostic or prognostic information.

 

[2121115]

The types of T-cells present matter quite a bit, particularly in skin biopsies, and their components and ratios matter. Now, that stuff is tied to macrophage activation, but knowing things at that level isn't necessary for current clinical practice.