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Updated: Jan 17, 2026
An In vitro Model to Study Heterogeneity of Human Macrophage Differentiation and Polarization
Published on: June 12, 2013
Macrophage Polarization Profiling in Dynamic Culture System
Alperen Yılmaz1,2, Resul Özbilgiç1,3, Elifsu Polatlı1,3
1Izmir Biomedicine and Genome Center, Izmir, Turkey.
Purpose:
In this study, we aimed to develop a dynamic on-chip platform to study macrophage polarization in a more physiologically relevant way by incorporating mechanical forces which have been recently shown to play important roles in macrophage biology.
Methods:
We developed polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) based platform. We examined the effects of the dynamic microenvironment on polarization states of human monocyte derived macrophages (HMDMs) towards the M1 and M2a phenotypes using lipopolysaccharide (LPS)/interferon-γ (IFN-γ) and interleukin-4 (IL-4) respectively for both static and dynamic conditions. M1 and M2 polarization levels were assessed by qPCR and flow cytometry analyses.
Results:
M1 and M2 polarization was achieved successfully under dynamic and static conditions. Our platform establishes that the mechanotransductive stimulation through shear stress during polarization has direct synergistic effects with stimulants on TNF-α secretion within HMDMs. Exposure to media flow rates of 0.5, 2.5, and 5 µl/min without stimulants is insufficient to induce macrophage polarization.
Conclusion:
The dynamic environment present inside our dynamic on-chip culture platform influences the human monocyte-derived macrophages (HMDMs) to become polarized into M1 phenotype at a greater level.
Supplementary Information:
The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12195-025-00863-0.
