Cytokine–ontogeny interaction shapes macrophage transcriptional states

Macrophage ontogeny and local cytokines jointly govern tumor-associated macrophage behaviour, yet how these signals integrate to generate pro- or antitumor outputs is unknown. Here, we apply a reductionist, multi-scale pipeline to systematically map eight reference macrophage states generated by ex vivo differentiation of mouse bone marrow cells with macrophage colony-stimulating factor (M-CSF) or granulocyte-macrophage CSF (GM-CSF) and subsequent cytokine polarization (IFN-gamma, IL-4, IL-10, TGF-beta). We integrated transcriptomic, 3D spheroid, and in vivo metastatic analyses to discover a lineage dependent polarity switch: IL-4 drives an ARG1+, tumor-supportive programme in M-CSF macrophages but, via NfkB, induces a CCR7+ inflammatory phenotype in GM-CSF macrophages. IFN-gamma uniformly activates STAT1/IRF pathways, maintaining antitumor profiles, whereas IL-10 and TGF-beta maximally evoke SPP1+ immunosuppressive signatures after GM-CSF priming. Functional assays confirmed these transcriptional states dictate opposite effects on tumor growth, invasion, and pulmonary metastasis. Integration of all parameters yielded an "ontogeny cytokine code" that predicts macrophage function based on developmental history and cytokine milieu. Identifying CSF-defined lineage as a master regulator of macrophage heterogeneity provides a blueprint for precision immunotherapies that reprogram macrophages in solid tumors. This SuperSeries is composed of the SubSeries listed below. Refer to individual Series