Regulation and functions of macrophages in the adult mouse testis

Macrophages are the most important immune cell type in the testis. Activin A is an important regulator of macrophage development has been found to be therapeutic in a number of inflammatory and immunological disease models. The aim of this research was to investigate 1) the effect of activin A on the macrophage number and functions in different compartments of the adult mouse testis in normal, infected, activin A-deficient mouse testes. 2) the functional aspects of macrophages by analyzing their gene expression profile in vitro. These studies have demonstrated that 1) testicular macrophages are anti-inflammatory 2) activin A regulates macrophage number and function in the adult mouse testis, and have identified distinct immunoregulatory and tolerogenic macrophage subsets in the rete testis 3) they lack the capacity to respond to some bacterial and viral infections.