Late Breaking Abstract - Generating iPSC derived alveolar macrophages as a novel model for respiratory research

This study aimed to produce iPSC-derived alveolar macrophages (iAM) using an established protocol for the production of iPSC derived macrophage progenitors. Briefly, progenitor cells were matured in conditioned media obtained from normal human lung fibroblasts (NHLF), BEAS-2-B or small airway epithelial cells (SAEC). Macrophage phenotype is known to be dependent on environmental signals, thus the use of conditioned media from lung cells is hypothesised to induce differentiation to iAM. These cells were characterised and compared to iPSC-derived microglia (iMGL) by flow cytometry, ELISA, ICC, phagocytosis and chemotaxis assays.iAM showed significantly lower expression of CD33 compared to iMGL (20±5% reduction) while other markers, CD14, CD16, CD11b and MARCO remained the same (n=3). In addition iAM showed greater uptake of pHRodo-S. aureus (5-30% higher, n=3), with the biggest difference observed in cells cultured in NHLF conditioned media.Here, we show the initial characterisation of iAM as a novel model for respiratory research. iAMs show different functional characteristics to iMGL and could be an invaluable tool for drug discovery in this field.
Source: European Respiratory Journal - Category: Respiratory Medicine Authors: Tags: Molecular pathology and funct. genomics Source Type: research