Purification of Tumor-Associated Macrophages (TAM) and Tumor-Associated Dendritic Cells (TADC)

Abstract

Tumors are heterogeneous microenvironments where complex interactions take place between neoplastic cells and infiltrating inflammatory cells, such as tumor-associated macrophages (TAM) and tumor-associated dendritic cells (TADC). The relevance of tumor-infiltrating mononuclear myeloid cells is underscored by clinical studies showing a correlation between their abundance and poor prognosis (Laoui et al., 2011). These cells are able to promote tumor progression via several mechanisms, including induction of angiogenesis, remodeling of the extracellular matrix, stimulation of cancer cell proliferation and metastasis and the inhibition of adaptive immunity (Laoui et al., 2011). Moreover, mononuclear myeloid cells are characterized by plasticity and versatility in response to microenvironmental signals, resulting in different activation states, as illustrated by the presence of distinct functional TAM subsets in tumors (Movahedi et al., 2010; Laoui et al., 2014). Here, we describe a valuable isolation technique for TAM and TADC permitting their molecular and functional characterization., 肿瘤是异质微环境，其中在肿瘤细胞和浸润性炎症细胞例如肿瘤相关巨噬细胞（TAM）和肿瘤相关树突细胞（TADC）之间发生复杂的相互作用。临床研究强调了肿瘤浸润性单核骨髓细胞的相关性，显示其丰度与不良预后之间的相关性（Laou等人，2011）。这些细胞能够通过几种机制促进肿瘤进展，包括诱导血管生成，重塑细胞外基质，刺激癌细胞增殖和转移以及抑制适应性免疫（Laoui等人，2011 ）。此外，单核骨髓细胞的特征在于响应于微环境信号的可塑性和通用性，导致不同的活化状态，如通过在肿瘤中存在不同的功能性TAM亚型所说明的（Movahedi等人，2010; Laoui et al。，2014）。在这里，我们描述了允许其分子和功能表征的TAM和TADC的有价值的分离技术。