A recent study, published on Cell by Marteen Hulsmans et al., describes an interesting (as unexpected) feature of macrophages to add to their ever-growing “things in which they are involved” list.
Macrophages that patrol cardiac tissue have been found to participate to heartbeat synchronization when atrioventricular node fails to relay the electrical impulse originating from sinoatrial node, thus helping the heart to “not skip a beat”… literally.