Related Experiment Video
Updated: Nov 14, 2025
Isolation of Human Monocytes by Double Gradient Centrifugation and Their Differentiation to Macrophages in Teflon-coated Cell Culture Bags
Published on: September 9, 2014
In Vitro Differentiation of Tumor-Associated Macrophages from Monocyte Precursors with Modified Melanoma-Conditioned
1Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Silver Spring, MD, USA. tao.wang@fda.hhs.gov.
Abstract:
Tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) are one of most important components of the tumor microenvironment. Although many assays have been developed to differentiate monocytes into macrophages (Mϕ) for studying the biology of TAMs in vitro, little is known whether the macrophages induced by these approaches can recapitulate the biology of TAMs present in the tumor microenvironment. We have developed a novel assay to differentiate human monocytes into TAMs using modified melanoma-conditioned medium, which is derived from the concentrated tumor cell culture medium. Characterization of these modified melanoma-conditioned medium-induced macrophages (MCMI-Mϕ) by multiple flow cytometry, Luminex, microarray, and immunohistochemistry analyses indicates that MCMI-Mϕ are phenotypically and functionally highly similar to the TAMs present in the tumor microenvironment.
