Characterization of tumor associated macrophages (TAM) in the tumor microenvironment of human melanoma

Tumor cells attract and dynamically interact with monocytes/macrophages to subvert their differentiation into tumor associated macrophages (TAMs), which mainly promote immunosuppression and neoplastic progression, but the pathways and microenvironmental cues governing their protumoral deviation are not completely understood. Thus, identifying molecular pathways responsible for TAM differentiation may provide new therapeutic targets to improve the efficacy of immunotherapy of cancer. Overall design: mRNA profiles of TAM ex vivo and in vitro in human melanoma. Ex vivo TAM were isolated from human skin melanoma. Monocytes from patients with melanoma were also isolated. In vitro TAM were created by coculturing monocytes or macrophages (M-CSF or GM-CSF differentiated) with different melanoma cell lines (BLM, A375 and SKMEL103) for 24 hours. All samples have been processed in triplicates