Fatty Acid-Driven Polarization of Suppressive Bone Marrow-Derived Macrophages Including Metabolic and Functional Analysis.

Abstract

Macrophages represent not only the first line of defense against pathogens and are the main drivers of inflammation but are also involved in the initiation, immune evasion as well as metastasis of tumors. Therefore, it has been suggested that diminishing the immune regulatory function of macrophages would support the natural immune surveillance or antitumor therapies, respectively. However, the plasticity of macrophages represents an obstacle in understanding and manipulating the role of macrophages in tumor tissue or the tumor microenvironment. Here, we describe a protocol to differentiate macrophages, based on changing their metabolic environment, from bone marrow precursors to tumor-associated macrophage-like cells of an immune suppressive phenotype. Based on these protocols, the inhibitory functional phenotype of macrophages can be manipulated and therefore further analyzed as described, by interrupting metabolic pathways.