Immune cells behave like neurons and accelerate muscle healing
Researchers have long known that macrophages — immune cells that cleanse tissues of damaged material and microbes — appear at the site of a muscle injury and help trigger recovery. But now it turns out that their role is much more unusual. The team noticed that some of the macrophages arriving after injury form a special contact with muscle fibers, resembling a nerve synapse. Through this connection, they literally transfer calcium ions to the muscle — and they do it as quickly as a nerve cell transmits a signal. Some immune cells can work almost the same way as neurons, and because of this they can accelerate the healing of damaged muscles. The discovery belongs to the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital team and is published in Current Biology.
This transmission takes only 10-30 seconds, and the muscles respond almost instantly with short electrical bursts of activity. According to the author of the study, Michael Jankowski, macrophages at this moment seem to push the muscle to accelerate recovery. And what is especially noteworthy: a similar mechanism has been observed not only in acute trauma, but also in conditions similar to muscle diseases, where recovery is usually slower.
Scientists observed how, after activation, special macrophages rushed to the damaged fibers and launched waves of activity that accelerated the formation of new muscle cells. After ten days, the animals with the intervention had noticeably more young muscle fibers than the control group, a sign of enhanced regeneration.
However, there are also mysteries. Despite the fact that macrophages noticeably accelerated recovery, they did not reduce the level of acute pain in any way. This is unexpected, because initially the researchers hoped to understand how to reduce pain after surgery or injury. Now the team wants to figure out why enhanced recovery is not accompanied by a decrease in pain response.
The next step is to find out if human macrophages work the same way. If so, this opens up opportunities for developing new treatments for muscle injuries, slowing down muscle wasting, and even developing cellular “deliverers” of therapeutic substances.
Published
November, 2025
Category
Medicine
Duration of reading
2–3 minutes
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Source
Scientific Journal Current Biology. Article: «Synaptic-like coupling of macrophages to myofibers regulates muscle repair,»
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