- Scientists have discovered that flies have a more complex immune system then first thought
- The findings show fruit flies have different types of white blood cell known as macrophages which help fight infection or repair damaged tissues
- The research will help to further our understanding of the immune system and further therapies for cancers and neurodegenerative disease
The immune systems of fruit flies are more similar to those of humans than previously thought, say a team of scientists from the University of Sheffield.
Our bodies’ immune system has many different types of the white blood cell known as the macrophage. These can be activated in different ways to help fight infections or promote the repair of damaged tissue. Humans also have lots of different kinds of specialised macrophages in the different organs and tissues of our bodies.
Until now it was thought that the flies only had one type of macrophage but the team’s findings, published in the journal eLife, show that fruit flies also have multiple types of macrophages. These potentially exist to enable the fly to respond to a greater array of immune threats.
These different kinds of macrophages exhibit distinct behaviours and are controlled via similar mechanisms used within our bodies to control our own white blood cells. This means that fruit fly immune cells are more similar to humans than previously anticipated and represent an even better model organism to understand immunity than originally thought.
Dr Iwan Evans, lead author of the research from the University of Sheffield’s Medical School, said: “Fly blood is really similar to our own despite it being millions of years since our last common ancestors. Fruit flies have been used for many years to study how immune systems work - in fact they were critical in discovering the key genes regulating how macrophages can be activated to respond to infections or injuries.
“In fruit flies, we have discovered types of macrophages that are better at responding to wounds. Using this discovery we will try to understand what makes these cells more effective and provide new ideas about how we can promote wound healing in humans or dampen unhelpful immune responses, for example where a strong immune response damages delicate tissue, such as during chronic lung diseases.
“Inappropriate behaviour of white blood cells can drive or worsen almost every human disease, including cancer, atherosclerosis and neurodegeneration. Often this involves the ‘wrong’ type of macrophage being present at sites of disease pathology. If we know more about how different types of macrophages are made we could develop new therapies to combat this.”
The team also found that these different subpopulations of macrophages varied across the life cycle of the fly and are interested in investigating whether changes in these subpopulations influence the ageing process.
Their next steps are to understand more about these macrophages in order to provide insights on how their specialised behaviours are programmed and can be manipulated.
Additional information
Identification of functionally distinct macrophage subpopulations in Drosophila - full paper
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