Identifying Disease Relevant Macrophage Subtypes in vitro using RNA-Sequencing Transcriptome Profiling

Tumour-associated macrophages(TAMs) represent a heterogeneous population of cells that exhibit remarkable plasticity. Within the tumour microenvironment TAMs play a crucial role in tumor development, neoangiogenesis, immune suppression, and metastasis. While access to human tumour tissue has permitted the characterisation of many TAM subtypes, this access is often limited which prohibits detailed analysis. TAM targeted drug discovery and development requires a sustainable method to accurately model different TAM populations invitro.

To address this challenge, we have generated bulk RNA-sequencing data from different subtypes of macrophages derived in vitro from primary human monocytes. The obtained data were compared to publicly available gene expression profiles to determine whether the invitro generated macrophage subtypes are transcriptionally similar to the previously characterised subpopulations found in human cancer tissue.

Our data demonstrates that different TAM populations can be modelled through in vitro polarisation of monocyte-derived macrophages.

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