Macrophage heterogeneity has been a source of fascination and frustration to macrophage biologists since they were first characterized by Elie Metchnikoff at the turn of the last century. Compounding this confusion is their phenotypic heterogeneity and functional plasticity. Macrophages participate in every process of multi-cellular life from embryonic development to innate immune responses. This glorious complexity makes for many exciting career paths but, unfortunately, considerable confusion. Below are our publications on macrophage phenotype, function and plasticity. For those that are unfortunately not open access (we apologize and promise not to do that anymore), please contact Dawn at bowdish@mcmaster.ca.

Publications:

1. Verschoor, CP., Lelic, A., Bramson, JL., Bowdish, DME.An introduction to automated flow cytometry gating tools and their implementation. Front. Immunol., 27 July 2015 | http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2015.00380
2. Fei, F., Bowdish, D.M.E., McCarry.B. Comprehensive and simultaneous coverage of lipid and polar metabolites for endogenous cellular metabolomics using HILIC-TOF-MS. 2014. Anal Bioanal Chem. 2014 Apr 10.This detailed protocol explains how to measure the endometabolome of both macrophages and microbes. 
3. Whelan FJ, Yap NV, Surette MG, Golding GB, Bowdish DM. A Guide to Bioinformatics for Immunologists. Front Immunol. 2013 Dec 4;4:416. eCollection 2013.This “how-to” guide explains how the bioinformatic resources available to immunologists and describes how to use them. The most highly downloaded article of its contemporaries in Frontiers Immunology!
4. Puchta A, Verschoor CP, Thurn T, Bowdish DM. Characterization of inflammatory responses during intranasal colonization with Streptococcus pneumoniae. J Vis Exp. 2014 Jan 17;(83):e50490. doi: 10.3791/50490.
5. Lee, K.M, Yin, C., Verschoor, C.P., Bowdish, D.M.E. Macrophage function disorders. Encyclopaedia of Life Sciences. 2013. Based on an early version by D. Bowdish & Siamon Gordon. This review discusses macrophage phenotype, pattern recognition receptors and contributions to chronic disease and infectious disease and discusses how macrophage function can be impaired by a number of immunodeficiencies. (The updated version is much improved from the original!).
6. Verschoor CP, Puchta A, Bowdish DM. The macrophage. Methods Mol Biol. 2012;844:139-56. doi: 10.1007/978-1-61779-527-5_10. Review. This chapter provides an overview of how macrophages and their parent cell-type, monocytes, are classified, their development through the myeloid lineage, and finally, the general function of macrophages.
7. Bowdish DM, Loffredo MS, Mukhopadhyay S, Mantovani A, Gordon S. Macrophage receptors implicated in the “adaptive” form of innate immunity. Microbes Infect. 2007 Nov-Dec;9(14-15):1680-7. Review.The adaptive component of innate immunity occurs during the course of infection when antigen presenting cells alter expression of soluble or surface associated pattern recognition receptors. This results in increased recognition of a broad spectrum of pathogens, enhancement of effector functions and altered regulation of the inflammatory response.
8. Bowdish, D.M.E., Gordon, S. Introduction to macrophage biology. In: Protozoans in Macrophages. Landes Biosciences. Edited by E.Y. Denkers and R. Gazzinelli. (2007)1-15. This review covers the origins of macrophages, differnences in macrophage phenotypes, mechanisms of macrophage-based killing and subversion of killing by pathogens.
9. Bowdish, D.M.E., Davidson, D.J., Hancock, R.E.W. Immunomodulatory properties of defensins and cathelicidins. In: Current Topics in Microbiology and Immunology. Edited by W. Shafer (2006)306:27-66.This reviews the anti-microbial properties of antimicrobial/host defence peptides and proposes that their function is primarily immunomodulatory rather than antimicrobial.