Hi Yasser,

A couple of markers to consider could be CD62L and CD11b. I've measured these in a previous study to assess leukocyte (neutrophil and monocyte) activation following orthopaedic surgery.

Hope this helps, ref:

Hughes SF, Hendricks BD, Edwards DR, & Middleton JF, (2010). Tourniquet-applied upper limb orthopaedic surgery results in increased inflammation and changes to leukocyte, coagulation & endothelial markers. PLOS ONE 5(7): e11846. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0011846.

Best wishes

Stephen 

Thanks Stephen

how about CD80 and/or CD86? Class II should also be up-regulated

Yasser, 

after 6 hours, most macrophage markers start to downregulate, inlcuding CD80, 86 and CD 11c. Their peak of expression is at 6 hours. After that apoptosis is likely to occur  for cells expressing CD80, 86 and 11c. Other macrophages should be then expressing CD206 and 163. 

Metabolic Markers such as Glut1 are emerging as key ways to access monocyte/macrophage activation as they can easily be assessed functionally.

Metabolic reprogramming of macrophages: glucose transporter 1 (GLUT1)-mediated glucose metabolism drives a proinflammatory phenotype.  Freemerman AJ, Johnson AR, Sacks GN, Milner JJ, Kirk EL, Troester MA, Macintyre AN, Goraksha-Hicks P, Rathmell JC, Makowski L.

J Biol Chem. 2014 Mar 14;289(11):7884-96. doi: 10.1074/jbc.M113.522037.

Glucose Metabolism in T Cells and Monocytes: New Perspectives in HIV Pathogenesis.

Palmer CS, Cherry CL, Sada-Ovalle I, Singh A, Crowe SM. EBioMedicine. 2016 Apr;6:31-41. doi: 10.1016/j.ebiom.2016.02.012. Review.

Article Glucose Transporter 1-Expressing Proinflammatory Monocytes A...

Activated monocytes should express higher level of MHC: difference may not be seen at regular flow but could be of value if you are able to measure the density of expression. Thuis, u will get marker and activation measure in one.