EDITORIAL article
Front. Immunol.
Sec. Molecular Innate Immunity
This article is part of the Research TopicSentinels of the Immune System: Tissue-Resident Macrophages in the Battle Against Infection and AutoimmunityView all 6 articles
Editorial: Sentinels of the Immune System: Tissue-Resident Macrophages (TRMs) in the Battle Against Infection and Autoimmunity
Provisionally accepted
- 1Center for Predictive Medicine for Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases, University of Louisville,, Louisville, KY, 40292, United States
- 2Department of Immunology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, 15260, United States
- 3Department of Pathology, University of Iowa, USA, Iowa City, IA, 52242, United States
- 4Graduate Program in Immunology, University of Iowa,, Iowa City, IA, 52242, United States
- 5Graduate Program in Experimental Pathology, University of Iowa,, Iowa City, IA, 52242, United States
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Macrophages are an integral component of innate immunity and serve as the first line of defense against tissue damage and infection. Tissue-resident macrophages (TRMs) originate from embryonic precursor cells and differentiate into Microglia (brain), alveolar macrophages (lung), Kupffer cells (liver), Langerhans cells (skin), Lamina propria (intestine), red pulp/white pulp/marginal zonal (spleen), peritoneal macrophages (peritoneal cavity) (1). TRMs are seeded into the tissues and maintained throughout lifespan by local self-renewal. TRMs are highly specialized tissue-resident cells with diverse functions and play an important role in maintaining homeostasis by preventing infections, controlling inflammation, and regulating autoimmunity (2) . This research topic was conceived to bring together studies that address current challenges and bridge the existing gaps in TRMs biology, including mechanism underlying tissues heterogeneity, interaction between TRMs and other immune cells in controlling pathogenic infections and autoimmune responses, and the development of novel macrophage-targeted therapeutic approaches. The five published articles cover a broad range of topics, including macrophage-mediated immune regulation, disease development, polarization, and emerging therapeutic approaches using both preclinical models and clinical settings. Here, we summarize their key findings, highlighting advances and new insights in TRMs research.
Keywords: Autoimmunity, Infection, innate immunity, Monocyte-derived macrophages (MDMs), Tissue-Resident Macrophages (TRMs)
Received: 02 Dec 2025; Accepted: 12 Dec 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Batra, Giri and Shahi. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Shailesh K Shahi
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.