Isolation of Mouse Kidney-Resident CD8+ T cells for Flow Cytometry Analysis

J Vis Exp. 2020 Jun 27:(160):10.3791/61559. doi: 10.3791/61559.

Abstract

Tissue-resident memory T cell (TRM) is a rapidly expanding field of immunology research. Isolating T cells from various non-lymphoid tissues is one of the key steps to investigate TRMs. There are slight variations in lymphocyte isolation protocols for different organs. Kidney is an essential non-lymphoid organ with numerous immune cell infiltration especially after pathogen exposure or autoimmune activation. In recent years, multiple labs including our own have started characterizing kidney resident CD8+ T cells in various physiological and pathological settings in both mouse and human. Due to the abundance of T lymphocytes, kidney represents an attractive model organ to study TRMs in non-mucosal or non-barrier tissues. Here, we will describe a protocol commonly used in TRM-focused labs to isolate CD8+ T cells from mouse kidneys following systemic viral infection. Briefly, using an acute lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV) infection model in C57BL/6 mice, we demonstrate intravascular CD8+ T cell labeling, enzymatic digestion, and density gradient centrifugation to isolate and enrich lymphocytes from mouse kidneys to make samples ready for the subsequent flow cytometry analysis.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Video-Audio Media

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • CD8-Positive T-Lymphocytes / cytology*
  • CD8-Positive T-Lymphocytes / immunology
  • Disease Models, Animal
  • Flow Cytometry*
  • Immunologic Memory / immunology
  • Kidney / cytology*
  • Kidney / immunology
  • Lymphocytic Choriomeningitis / immunology
  • Lymphocytic Choriomeningitis / pathology
  • Lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus / immunology
  • Mice
  • Mice, Inbred C57BL