Macrophages were first described over a hundred years ago. Throughout the years, they were shown to be essential players in their tissue-specific environment, performing various functions during homeostatic and disease conditions. Recent reports shed more light on their ontogeny as long-lived, self-maintained cells with embryonic origin in most tissues. They populate the different tissues early during development, where they help to establish and maintain homeostasis. In this chapter, the history of macrophages is discussed. Furthermore, macrophage ontogeny and core functions in the different tissues are described.
Keywords: Hematopoietic waves; Macrophage ontogeny; Monocytes; Phagocytes; Tissue-resident macrophages.
© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.