Roles of Cardiac Resident Macrophages in Heart Development and Homeostasis
ZHENG Peiyao, LI Jiayi, KE Yuehai, CHENG Hongqiang*
Recent advances in lineage tracing, single-cell sequencing, and spatial omics technologies have greatly deepened the understanding of the origin and functional heterogeneity of cardiac resident macro phages. Accumulating evidence indicates that cardiac macrophages don’t represent a uniform population but instead comprise a heterogeneous pool with multiple embryonic origins and distinct functional specializations, which are biologically different from circulating monocyte-derived macrophages. Cardiac resident macrophages are primarily generated during embryonic development and are maintained throughout adulthood via self-renew al, thereby serving as essential permanent immune residents and sentinels of the heart. This review systematically summarizes the complex origin and functional specialization of cardiac resident macrophages, with a particular focus on their critical roles in cardiomyocyte proliferation and maturation, the formation of cardiac valves and the conduction system, as well as the maintenance of adult cardiac homeostasis. Finally, this article discusses future research directions, emphasizing the importance of translating these mechanistic insights into therapeutic strategies targeting specific macrophage subpopulations for cardiovascular diseases.
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