Picturing Polarized Myeloid Phagocytes and Regulatory Cells by Mass Cytometry

The immune monocyte/phagocyte system (MPS) includes numerous cell subsets of the myeloid lineage including monocyte, macrophage, and dendritic cell (DC) populations that are heterogeneous both phenotypically and functionally. Previously, we characterized these diverse MPS phenotypes with multi-parametric mass cytometry (CyTOF). In order to expansively characterize monocytes, macrophages, and dendritic cells, a CyTOF panel was designed to measure 35 identity-, activation-, and polarization-markers. Here we provide a protocol to define a reference map for the myeloid compartment, including sample preparation, to produce reference cell subsets from the monocyte/phagocyte system. In particular, we focused on monocyte-derived macrophages that were further polarized in vitro with cytokine stimulation (i.e., M-CSF, GM-CSF, IL-4, IL-10, IFNγ, and LPS), as well as monocyte-derived DCs, and myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs), generated in vitro from human bone marrow and/or peripheral blood.