Isolation and Characterization of Lymphocytes from Human Mucosal Biopsies

: The important role of the local mucosal environment in both the initiation and progression of allergic disease is well established. Analysis of tissue-resident lymphocyte subsets by flow cytometry requires isolation of viable cells from mucosal samples.Here we describe an advanced method to dissociate lymphocytes from human mucosal (e.g., nasal, bronchial) biopsies. Single-cell suspensions are obtained through a combination of gentle mechanical disruption and incubation of tissue with proteolytic enzymes. This method fully utilizes limited clinical samples and is amenable to a variety of downstream applications for phenotypic, single-cell analysis of tissue lymphocytes or pooled lymphocyte subsets.