Advances in the Study of the Immunoregulatory Functions of Erythrocytes
LI Yue, SHI Lihong*
Erythrocytes are rich in hemoglobin, which can combine or dissociate with oxygen according to the oxygen partial pressure. In addition to oxygen transport, erythrocytes can perform immunoregulatory functions through immune adhesion, regulating the activity of the complement system, and directly killing pathogens. Erythrocytes at different developmental stages in mammals and non-mammals have been reported to have their immune functions, and the mechanisms by which they perform immune regulation are also varied. With the continuous research about the immune functions of red blood cells, CD71+ erythroblasts in mammals have been verified to exert immunoregulatory functions in a diversity of physiological and pathological models, and they play important roles during normal development processes and pathogenesis of diseases. The heterogeneity within erythroblasts can be studied by single-cell RNA sequencing technique, and the immune-biased erythrocytes have shown promising clinical application values.
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