Harvesting pre-polarized macrophages using thermo-responsive substrates

Sci Rep. 2017 Feb 14:7:42495. doi: 10.1038/srep42495.

Abstract

In the cell culture environment macrophages are highly adherent cells. Currently used methods to harvest macrophages have the disadvantage of reducing cell viability and their ability to re-attach after seeding. Although thermo-responsive surfaces have been employed to harvest cell sheets no reports are available to use these to harvest (pre-polarized) macrophages. We show that this method significantly improves the yield of living macrophages and percentage of subsequent cell reattachment, whilst having a minimal effect on the cell phenotype.