Macrophage Polarization: Decisions That Affect Health.

The constructive – repair – activity is commonly called M2 and the destructive – kill – activity of macrophages is called M1 [10,14]. M2and M1-type activities occur throughout the animal kingdom and are normally induced by macrophages sampling their environs for Damageor PathogenAssociated Molecular Patterns (DAMPs and PAMPs) [15]. By sensing whether to exhibit constructive or destructive activities macrophages are uniquely able to protect hosts in ways best suited to correcting varying non-infectious or infectious threats to hosts.