Mononuclear phagocytes can both promote and inhibit inflammation. A Team from Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet (LMU) in Munich has now shown that individual phagocytes in the central nervous system can play both roles, sequentially adopting different phenotypes with distinct functions. Mononuclear phagocytes, which recognize, engulf and digest damaged and infected cells, form an important arm of the innate...