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©The Author(s) 2025. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Biol Chem. Dec 5, 2025; 16(4): 109509
Published online Dec 5, 2025. doi: 10.4331/wjbc.v16.i4.109509
Published online Dec 5, 2025. doi: 10.4331/wjbc.v16.i4.109509
Macrophage-mediated metabolic dysregulation in the pancreas: Insights from obesity
Ke-Ran Chen, Ze-Yu Chen, Fei-Yi Liu, Cong-Yi Xie, Jie Hu, Shuai-Yan Wang, Bin Xu, Tian-Cheng Xu, Key Laboratory of Acupuncture and Medicine Research of Ministry of Education, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing 210023, Jiangsu Province, China
Co-first authors: Ke-Ran Chen and Ze-Yu Chen.
Co-corresponding authors: Bin Xu and Tian-Cheng Xu.
Author contributions: Chen KR and Xu TC conceived and designed the study framework. Chen KR, Chen ZY, Liu FY, Xie CY, and Hu J wrote the manuscript and conducted literature reviews focusing on macrophage-mediated metabolic dysregulation in the pancreas; Chen KR led the manuscript writing and made indispensable and critical contributions to the completion of the paper, thus qualifying as the first author. As co-corresponding authors, both Xu TC and Xu B played essential and integral roles in data interpretation and manuscript preparation. All authors participated in drafting the initial version and read and approved the final manuscript. Xu TC, as the principal investigator, was responsible for conceptualization, project design, overall supervision, and acquisition of funding and resources. Xu B led data validation, standardized figure and table preparation, and enhanced the discussion of core mechanisms, ensuring the academic rigor of the manuscript. The complementary expertise and collaboration between the two corresponding authors ensured the integration of theoretical framework and experimental validation throughout the study.
Supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China Youth Science Fund Project, No. 82305376; the Young Talent Support Program of the China Association for Acupuncture-Moxibustion, No. 2024-2026ZGZJXH-QNRC005; the 2024 Jiangsu Provincial Young Scientific and Technological Talent Support Program, No. JSTJ-2024-380; and the 2025 Jiangsu Science and Technology Think Tank Program Project, No. JSKX0125035.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest associated with the publication of this manuscript.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Tian-Cheng Xu, MD, PhD, Head, Key Laboratory of Acupuncture and Medicine Research of Ministry of Education, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, No. 138 Xianlin Avenue, Qixia District, Nanjing 210023, Jiangsu Province, China. xtc@njucm.edu.cn
Received: May 14, 2025
Revised: June 22, 2025
Accepted: October 10, 2025
Published online: December 5, 2025
Processing time: 204 Days and 17.1 Hours
Revised: June 22, 2025
Accepted: October 10, 2025
Published online: December 5, 2025
Processing time: 204 Days and 17.1 Hours
Core Tip
Core Tip: Obesity contributes to the polarisation of pancreatic macrophages towards pro-inflammatory Macrophage, pro-inflammatory phenotype type through chronic inflammation, releasing factors such as C-C motif ligand 2 and transforming growth factor beta that impair β-cell function and trigger fibrosis. Macrophage metabolites and their interactions with vesicular cells have been identified as key mechanisms of metabolic disorders. Targeted regulation of macrophage polari