Whether the foamy macrophage responses observed in non-clinical in vivo studies are relevant to humans or not, remains unclear; with “safe” exposure levels set without knowing if these observations are adverse or adaptive. Whilst in vitro approaches for predicting safety are routinely used non-clinically in the pharmaceutical industry, multi-parameter screens combining viability, activation, functionality, and morphology endpoints have yet to be incorporated. Multi-parameter in vitro assessment of phenotypic alveolar macrophage responses with morphONE provides a detailed understanding of adverse lung responses, which can be correlated to morphological changes observed in the rat lung to help inform more detailed safety assessment of new modalities.

ImmuONE’s new service morph_ONE is a reproducible, mechanistic-driven cell painting assay that can differentiate alveolar macrophage responses in vitro and match them to compounds with varying safety profiles. morph_ONE reveals how inhaled substances affect more than a dozen morphological features of macrophages, including sphericity, cell and nuclear area, shape analysis and vacuolation profiles. Currently, there is no established in vitro assessment that can provide morphometric characteristics of alveolar macrophages, so morph_ONE fills a crucial gap for scientists.

morph_ONE reveals how inhaled substances affect more than a dozen morphological features of macrophages, including sphericity, cell and nuclear area, shape analysis and vacuolation profiles. Currently, there is no established in vitro assessment that can provide morphometric characteristics of alveolar macrophages, so morph_ONE fills a crucial gap for scientists.

As alveolar macrophage responses to drug challenge in vivo may impact only a small percentage of the total cell population, cellular responses in vitro may be disregarded when considering average data descriptors. This study explores the use of multiple parameters for individual cells, enabling analysis of a subset of the population of cells that respond to a stimulus.