Metabolic Adaptation Sets the Fate of Regulatory Macrophages

In this issue of Cell Metabolism, Du et al. (2019) describe how insulin-like growth factor 2 (IGF-2), a protein with structural similarity to insulin, induces an anti-inflammatory phenotype in maturing macrophages through reprogramming of their mitochondrial metabolism. These anti-inflammatory properties are maintained upon secondary stimulation and alleviate experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) in vivo.