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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2023 Sep 1.
Published in final edited form as: Trends Immunol. 2022 Aug 3;43(9):718–727. doi: 10.1016/j.it.2022.07.006

Figure 2. Acetylcholine-producing immune cells in physiological and pathological conditions.

Figure 2.

ChAT-expressing immune cells have been found in multiple tissues and organs in both human and mouse. Rodent studies have revealed that acetylcholine secreted from these subpopulations of immune cells plays an important role in regulating blood pressure and coronary vasodilation [72, 77], the response to enteric bacterial [75] and parasite infection [78, 79], inhibition of myelopoiesis in bone marrow [80], regulation of cytokine production and viral control [67, 76], and activation of beige adipocytes [40, 41]. In addition, accumulation of monocytes in the central nervous system is attenuated by acetylcholine-producing NK cells in human biopsies and mouse models of multiple sclerosis [73]. Abbreviations: ChAM, cholinergic adipose macrophage; ChAT, choline acetyltransferase; CHRNA2, cholinergic receptor nicotinic alpha 2 subunit; CHRNA7, cholinergic receptor nicotinic alpha 7 subunit; ILC2, type 2 innate lymphoid cell; Mϕ, macrophage; NK, natural killer; TNFα, tumor necrosis factor α.