Macrophage Polarization in Cerebral Aneurysm: Perspectives and Potential Targets

Cerebral aneurysms (cas) have become a health burden not only because their rupture is life threatening,but for a series of devastating complications left in survivors. it is well accepted that sustained chronic inflammation plays a crucial role in the pathology of cerebral aneurysms. in particular,macrophages have been identified as critical effector cells orchestrating inflammation in cas. in recent years,dysregulated m1/m2 polarization has been proposed to participate in the progression of cas. although the pathological mechanisms of m1/m2 imbalance in cas remain largely unknown,recent advances have been made in the understanding of the molecular basis and other immune cells involving in this sophisticated network. we provide a concise overview of the mechanisms associated with macrophage plasticity and the emerging molecular targets. © 2017 lingmin shao et al.