Nuclei isolation from surgically resected human hippocampus
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Updated: Oct 18, 2025

Neuronal Nuclei Isolation from Human Postmortem Brain Tissue
Published on: October 1, 2008
Fatma Ayhan1, Connor Douglas1, Bradley C Lega2
1Department of Neuroscience, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX 75390, USA.
Abstract:
Single-nucleus RNA sequencing (snRNA-seq), where nuclear transcriptomes are a proxy to cellular transcriptomes, has been used to profile human brain. snRNA-seq is sensitive to tissue processing, tissue quality, postmortem interval time, and cellular debris. This protocol outlines steps for the isolation of high-quality nuclei from surgically resected human brain tissue followed by a sucrose gradient yielding neuronal and non-neuronal nuclei enabling unbiased analysis of various cell types. For complete details on the use and execution of this protocol, please refer to Ayhan et al. (2021).

