Previous studies have suggested that in metabolic diseases — such as obesity-associated insulin resistance — liver macrophages acquire a pro-inflammatory phenotype. However, the modest metabolic effects of anti-inflammatory drugs have brought this into question. A new study in Nature Metabolism shows, instead, that liver macrophages produce the non-inflammatory factor insulin-like growth factor-binding protein 7 (IGFBP7) to directly regulate liver metabolism.

Nature Reviews Immunology (2019),8 April