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Most malignant tumors contain so-called tumor-associated macrophages (TAM) as a major component of their leukocytic infiltrate. To investigate the impact of the tumor microenvironment on activation and differentiation of macrophages, we established a 3-dimensional model system by culturing human monocytes within multicellular tumor spheroids. After 7 days, monocyte-derived TAM were isolated and analyzed for phenotypic alterations as compared to macrophages cultured without tumor cell contact. We found the known macrophage differentiation marker Carboxypeptidase M to be suppressed while CD14, HLA-DR, and CD16 were up-regulated. Using Differential Display, we identified several genes that were differentially expressed between TAM and control macrophages. Prolidase, a peptidase known to influence the chemoattraction of neutrophils and macrophage activity, was down-regulated in TAM. In contrast, the Toll-like receptor family-related molecules MD-1 and RP105 were up-regulated by tumor cell contact, both at the RNA and protein level. From our data we conclude that TAM represent a distict macrophage population characterized by low expression of differentiation-associated macrophage antigens but also by a constitutive state of activation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]