Flow Cytometry Phenotyping of Bone Marrow-Derived Macrophages from Wild-Type and Mif^-/- Mice

Phenotyping cells by flow cytometry is a powerful way to identify cell type and any morphological changes during cell culture. The staining procedure used in this chapter enables the characterization of mouse macrophages by a flow cytometry antibody panel which can be used for both bone marrow-derived macrophages (BMM) and macrophages derived from other tissues, such as the mouse spleen or peritoneal cavity. The surface and intracellular staining methods are versatile and can be applied to flow cytometry staining of several different cell types by changing the surface markers used with knowledge of which receptors are expressed on different cell types.