Isolation and Culture of Murine Macrophages

The two most convenient sources of primary murine macrophages are the bone marrow and the peritoneal cavity. Resident peritoneal macrophages can readily be harvested from mice and purified by adherence to tissue culture plastic. The injection of Bio-Gel polyacrylamide beads or thioglycollate broth into the peritoneal cavity produces an inflammatory response allowing the purification of large numbers of elicited macrophages. The production of an activated macrophage population can be achieved by using Bacillus-Calmette-Guerin as the inflammatory stimulus. Resident bone marrow macrophages can be isolated following enzymatic separation of cells from bone marrow plugs and enrichment on 30% fetal calf serum containing medium or Ficoll-Hypaque gradients. Bone marrow-derived macrophages can be produced by differentiating nonadherent macrophage precursors with medium containing macrophage colony-stimulating factor.