Modeling Complement-Mediated Phagocytosis Using Opsonized Red Blood Cells In Vitro

Abstract

Source: Nagre, N., et al. Alveolar Macrophage Phagocytosis and Bacteria Clearance in Mice. J. Vis. Exp. (2019).

This video demonstrates the assessment of complement receptor-mediated phagocytosis using sheep red blood cells opsonized with IgM and complement, followed by their uptake by mouse macrophages. The extent of phagocytosis is quantified by measuring a blue chromogenic product formed through hemoglobin-catalyzed oxidation of diaminofluorene.

Protocol

1. FcγR- and CR-mediated Phagocytosis

1. For the opsonization, incubate 2 x 10⁸ sheep red blood cells (SRBCs) with 50 µL of rabbit anti-SRBC-IgM or 50 µL of rabbit anti-SRBC-IgG for 30 min at room temperature.
2. Incubate IgM-opsonized SRBCs with 50 µL of C5-deficient (C5D) human serum for 30 min at 37 °C to fix the complement fragments C3b and C3bi on IgM-coated SRBCs.
3. Seed murine macrophage cells (MH-S cells) (10,000 cells/well) in a 96-well plate and incubate overnight to get a ~70% confluence. Add 100 µL of 1 x 10⁷/mL opsonized SRBCs to each well of MH-S cells and incubate for 1 h at 37 °C. Wash unbound SRBCs very quickly (~1 min) with 100 µL of ammonium chloride-potassium (ACK) lysis buffer.
4. Lyse the cells with 0.1% SDS and add 50 µL of 2,7-diaminofluorene (DAF) containing 3% hydrogen peroxide and 6 M urea. Measure the absorbance of the hemoglobin-catalyzed fluorene blue formation at 620 nm.
5. Determine the number of SRBCs by using a standard curve at 620 nm absorbance values with a known number of SRBCs. Similarly, process MH-S cells incubated with nonopsonized SRBCs to use as negative controls.

Materials

List of materials used in this article

Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
2,7-diaminofluorene (DAF)	Sigma-Aldrich	D17106	Molecular Biology grade
70% Ethanol	Decon Labs Inc.	18C27B	Analytical grade
96-well plate	Corning	3603	Cell Biology grade
ACK lysis buffer	Life Technologies	A10492	Molecular Biology grade
C5 deficient serum	Sigma-Aldrich	C1163	Biochemical reagent
Centrifuge	Labnet International	C0160-R
Cytospin 4 Cytocentrifuge	Thermofisher Scientific	A78300101 Issue 11
DMEM Cell Culture Media	Gibco	11995-065	Cell Biology grade
FBS	Atlanta Biologicals	S11550	Cell Biology grade
Flow Cytometer	BD Biosciences	FACSCalibur
Flow Jo Software	FlowJo, LLC
Forceps	Dumont	0508-SS/45-PS-1	Suitable for laboratory animal dissection
Glass bottom dish	MatTek Corp.	P35G-0.170-14-C	Cell Biology grade
High-Pressure Syringe	Penn-Century	FMJ-250	Suitable for laboratory animal use
Homogenizer	Omni International	TH-01
Hydrogen peroxide	Sigma-Aldrich	H1009	Analytical grade
Inverted Fluorescence Microscope	Olympus	IX73
MicroSprayer Aerosolizer	Penn-Century	IA-1C	Suitable for laboratory animal use
Paraformaldehyde	Sigma-Aldrich	P6148	Reagent grade
PBS	Gibco	20012-027	Cell Biology grade
rabbit anti-SRBC-IgG	MP Biomedicals	55806	Suitable for immuno-assays
rabbit anti-SRBC-IgM	Cedarline Laboratories	CL9000-M	Suitable for immuno-assays
Scissors	Miltex	5-2	Suitable for laboratory animal dissection
sheep red blood cells (SRBCs)	MP Biomedicals	55876	Washed, preserved SRBCs