Analyzing the Metabolic Phenotype of Bone Marrow-Derived Dendritic Cells by Assessing Their Oxygen Consumption and...

Dendritic cells (DCs) are the bridge between innate and T cell-dependent adaptive immunity, and are promising therapeutic targets for cancer and immune-mediated disorders. In the recent past, DCs have gained significant interest to manipulate them for the treatment of cancer and immune-mediated disorders. This can be achieved by differentiating them into either immunogenic or tolerogenic DCs (TolDCs), by modulating their metabolic pathways, including glycolysis, oxidative phosphorylation, and fatty acid metabolism, to orchestrate their desired function. For immunogenic DCs, this maturation shifts the metabolic profile to a glycolytic metabolic state and leads to the use of glucose as a carbon source, whereas TolDCs prefer oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) and fatty acid oxidation for their energy resource.Understanding the metabolic regulation of DC subsets and functions at large not only will improve our understanding of DC biology and immune regulation, but can also open up opportunities for treating immune-mediated ailments and cancers by tweaking endogenous T-cell responses through DC-based immunotherapies. Here we describe a method to analyze this dichotomous metabolic reprogramming of the DCs for generating reliable and effective DC cell therapy products. We, hereby, report how to measure the OXPHOS and glycolysis level of DCs. We focus on the metabolic reprogramming of TolDCs using a pharmacological nuclear factor (erythroid-derived 2)-like-2 factor (Nrf2) activator as an example to illustrate the metabolic profile of TolDCs.