To begin, place the dissected mouse tissue in a cold cell culture medium containing 5%FBS. Using sharp dissection scissors, chop the tissue until approximately five millimeters fragments are obtained. Transfer the chopped fragments to a C-tube and add one milliliter of cell culture media.
Load the C-tube onto the motorized device and fit the tube holder plate over the D-shaped tube bottoms. Latch the tension arms into the acrylic plate to secure the tubes to the motor plate. To set a custom program on the motorized device from the main menu, press the blue button to choose custom mode.
In the first custom mode menu, press the green button to specify the duration of forward rotation to 30 seconds. Then press the blue button to select the on screen value. In the second custom mode menu, press the green button to specify the duration of reverse rotation to 10 seconds.
Then press the blue button to select the on screen value. In the third custom mode menu, press the red button to specify the selection loops to four times. Then press the blue button to select the on screen value.
Adjust the voltage control dial to 200 RPM and start the custom program. Next, add digestion enzyme in four milliliters of cold culture media containing dissected tissues. Again, load the C-tube onto the device and repeat the custom program as demonstrated previously.
After the run, transfer the device with the loaded tubes to a 37 degree Celsius incubator for 45 minutes. Next, load the C-tube onto the device and set the custom program at 50 RPM with forward rotation to 270 seconds. Reverse rotation to 30 seconds and looping nine times.
Add EDTA to a five millimolar final concentration to the sample. Set the custom program at 100 RPM with forward rotation to 30 seconds. Reverse rotation to 10 seconds and looping twice.
Next, pass the cell suspension through a 70 micrometer cell strainer and collect the filtrate in a 50 or 15 milliliter tube. Centrifuge the collected cell suspension at 300 G for five minutes at four degrees Celsius and discard the supernatant. Re-suspend the pellet in one milliliter of red blood cell lysis buffer, and incubate for one minute.
Neutralize the lysis buffer with nine milliliters of cold PBS. Again, centrifuge the cells and re-suspend the pellet in the desired buffer or media. Cell suspension prepared with motorized device and manual dissociation exhibited comparable cell viability and yields across mouse lung, kidney, and heart tissues.
Immune cell populations like T-cells and dendritic cells were not significantly affected by the isolation protocol. Surface marker expression also showed similar frequencies of isolated T-cells in mean fluorescence intensity for the antigen presentation marker MHC II in dendritic cells between manual and device isolation.
