Red blood cell heme drives the generation of TAM-like macrophages with an immunocompromized phenotype

Extravasated RBCs and their main component heme could function as specific microenvironmental drivers of TAM differentiation. We established two subcutaneous matrigel plug models of tissue microhemorrhage, which allow post-experimental recovery of invading cells at high quality for downstream analysis. Macrophage-enriched single-cell suspensions from RBC and RBC-ghost membranes matrigel plugs were used for GEM generation following 10X Genomics protocol (CG000388 Demonstrated Protocol Chromium Next GEM Single Cell 3ʹ v3.1 (Dual Index) with Feature Barcode technology for Cell Multiplexing Rev B) targeting a cell recovery rate of 10’000 cells for each condition.