Background：F4/80 is a 160 kD glycoprotein. It is characterized as a member of the epidermal growth factor （EGF）-transmembrane 7 （TM7） family. F4/80, also known as EMR1 or Ly71, has been widely used as a murine macrophage marker, which is expressed on the majority of tissue macrophages including peritoneal macrophages, macrophages in lung, gut, thymus and red pulp of spleen （but not on the macrophages located in T cell areas of the spleen, lymph node and Peyer's patch）, Kuffer cells, Langerhans cells, and bone marrow stromal cells. F4/80 has also been shown on a subset of dendritic cells. The biological ligand of F4/80 has not been identified, but it has been reported that F4/80 is required for induction of CD8+ T cells-mediated peripheral tolerance.
