Characterization of macrophages influence in human melanoma cells
Tumor cells attract and dynamically interact with monocytes/macrophages, one of the more abundant cell types in the tumor microenvironment, to subvert their differentiation into tumor associated macrophages (TAMs), which mainly promote immunosuppression and neoplastic progression, but the mechanisms governing their protumoral activity are not completely understood. Thus, identifying molecular pathways promoted by macrophages that could be responsible for immune evasion and tumor malignicity may provide new therapeutic targets to improve the efficacy of immunotherapy of cancer. Overall design: BLM human melanoma cell line was coculture for 24h with in vitro differentiated macrophages, obtained from CD14+ monocytes isolated from human PBMCs in the presence of GM-CSF or M-CSF for seven days. All samples have been processed in triplicates.