46 Chapter 2 systems and how this varies in the context of changing conditions, for example during the development of DMTII. It is thus of particular interest to combine multiple analytical approaches to gain a comprehensive overview of mechanisms related to macrophage metabolic reprograming. Moreover, even though there is considerable knowledge about metabolic reprogramming during macrophage polarization in cell culture under defined conditions, there is still a large knowledge gap when it comes to diseases like DMTII. Here metabolic changes are key disease features, which most probably will also reflect in changes in the metabolism of macrophages and their polarization. That is why metabolomics in combination with lipidomics, fluxomics, transcriptomics, and proteomics has the potential to lead to the discovery of further mechanistic links between inflammation and metabolic disturbances (121). FUTURE PERSPECTIVES A new branch of immunology, called immunometabolism, has been developing rapidly in the past ten years (Figure 5). It is defined as the interplay between immunological and metabolic processes and has solid foundations in macrophage biology research, which is illustrated by the fact that 29% of the 2027 publications since 1975 also had the key word ‘macrophages’. Figure 5: Graphic representation of the number of publications in Pubmed.gov using the keyword ‘Immunometabolism’ from 1975 until 2021.
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