Different antigen presentation tendencies of granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor-induced bone marrow-derived macrophages and peritoneal macrophages

Granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF)-induced bone marrow-derived cells (BMCs) and primary peritoneal exudate cells (PECs) are usually used for antigen presentation in in vitro experiments. In order to expound their tendency for uptake and antigen presentation, we compared differences in the degree of phagocytosis, the expression of co-stimulatory molecules, and the activation of T lymphocytes between these two cell types. These assays used the F4/80 marker expression, as it is the general marker for macrophages. The BMC population was found to contain both F4/80bright and F4/80dim subtypes, while PECs were mainly composed of the F4/80bright subtype. Expression levels of cell surface co-stimulatory molecules, CD80, CD86, CD54, and CD40, were significantly higher for F4/80+BMCs than F4/80+PECs. Their expressions were further upregulated for F4/80+BMCs than for F4/80+PECs after stimulation with flagellin. F4/80+BMCs had a weaker ability to phagocytize microbeads than F4/80+PECs (P