Lead Modulation of Macrophages Causes Multiorgan Detrimental Health Effects

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Why is it important?

The toxic effects of the ubiquitous environmental toxicant lead (Pb) are best known for detrimental influences on the nervous system and thinking. Lead throughout life can interfere with a host’s physiology but its most harmful during early development of the fetus and infant. Lead’s noxious properties are not limited to the brain, in fact some of Pb’s influences on brain functions may be due to immune cells in the brain, the microglial cells. Microglia are macrophage-like cells and they exist in multiple organs with slightly different phenotypes and names, e.g., monocytes in blood, mesangial cells in kidney, Kupffer cells in liver, Langerhans cells in skin and histiocytes in tissues. These cells are a first line of defense cell with their capture of pathogens and anything looking “non-self” and their influences on immunity. Thus, Pb may alter numerous biological pathways needed to maintain “self” and eliminate foreignness, which could include pathogens, cancers, and cells no longer looking like self-cells and carry out their proper functions.