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Isolation and Culture of Bone Marrow-Derived Macrophages from Mice
Published on: June 23, 2023
Generation of mouse bone marrow-derived macrophages
1School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia.
Methods in Molecular Biology (Clifton, N.J.)
|January 21, 2012
Summary
Generating large numbers of bone marrow-derived macrophages (BMMs) in vitro offers a reproducible and cost-effective alternative to isolating resident macrophages. This method provides ample cells for various innate immune system assays.
Area of Science:
- Immunology
- Cell Biology
Background:
- Isolating resident macrophages from mouse tissues is challenging, yielding few cells.
- Functional macrophage assays often require large, homogeneous cell populations, posing a significant hurdle.
Purpose of the Study:
- To present an alternative method for generating a large quantity of macrophages for research.
- To highlight the utility of bone marrow-derived macrophages (BMMs) as a model for resident macrophages.
Main Methods:
- Culturing mouse bone marrow cells in vitro with growth factors.
- Utilizing macrophage colony-stimulating factor (M-CSF) for differentiation.
- Characterizing the yield and reproducibility of the BMM generation process.
Main Results:
- The in vitro culture method provides a high yield of macrophages.
- This procedure is reproducible and cost-effective, with the exception of M-CSF cost.
- Bone marrow-derived macrophages (BMMs) are suitable for numerous functional and structural assays.
Conclusions:
- In vitro differentiation of bone marrow cells is a practical method for obtaining large numbers of macrophages.
- BMMs serve as a valuable model for studying resident macrophage functions in innate immunity.
