Characterization and Functional Phenotyping of Renal Immune Cells via Flow Cytometry

A variety of immune cell subsets contribute to the pathogenesis of hypertension and associated kidney damage following inappropriate activation of the renin-angiotensin system (RAS). These immune cell subsets often express common surface markers, which complicates their separation and characterization in vivo. Accordingly, flow cytometry has become an invaluable tool for parsing immune cell populations because this technique permits the simultaneous detection of up to 18 markers on a single cell. Below we describe a process by which one can determine the immune cell subsets in the kidney via flow cytometry.