Abstract
Immune cells, such as microglia are resident in the brain and spinal cord of normal mice and humans. Furthermore, macrophages, dendritic cells, T cells, B cells and NK cells infiltrate the CNS during certain infections or in neurodegenerative/neuroinflammatory diseases, such as experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) (a model for multiple sclerosis) or Alzheimer’s disease (Sutton et al., 2009; Browne et al., 2013). Infiltrating cells can be identified using immunohistological staining of sections from brain or spinal cords. However, more detailed phenotypic and functional analysis is possible following isolation of the immune cells from the CNS of normal or diseased mice. Purification of mononuclear cells from brain or spinal cord is dependent on perfusing the mouse to ensure removal of the blood from the CNS tissue, prior to dissociating the tissue and purification of the mononuclear cells on a percoll gradient. The technique provides single cell suspensions with cells of high viability that are suitable for FACS analysis or limited functional studies. The yields are usually low from the normal mouse brain or spinal cord, but higher from mice with EAE or CNS infection. When combined with intracellular cytokine staining and FACS, this technique is particularly useful for analysis of the pathogenic T cells (Th17 and Th1 cells) and their regulation/modulation in EAE.
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Acknowledgments
This work was funded by a PI grant to Kingston Mills from Science Foundation Ireland.
References
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