Impaired Efferocytosis Enables Apoptotic Osteoblasts to Escape Osteoimmune Surveillance During Aging (Adv. Sci. 36/2023)

Escape Osteoimmune Surveillance During Aging The monkey king, Sun Wukong, caused havoc in heaven is one of the ancient myths of China. Based on a legend, Sun Wukong breaks into the Southern Heavenly Gate and smashes the building using his golden cudgel. In article number 2303946, Jie Cheng, Hongbing Jiang, and co-workers reveal a new concept of osteoimmune surveillance and link it to impaired clearance of apoptotic osteoblasts by macrophages. The young monkeys representing macrophages are allowed across the Southern Heavenly Gate (checkpoint) to clear apoptotic osteoblasts using their cleaner, but old monkeys are refused due to impaired checkpoint, thus leading to accumulated apoptotic osteoblasts and bone loss.