Benchmarking Dendritic Cell Enrichment Methods Reveals Subset-Specific Recovery Biases

Dendritic cells (DCs) are rare in human blood, often requiring enrichment prior to analysis. Here, we benchmark commonly used pan-DC enrichment methods by comparing recovered DC subset composition to ex vivo references. While all approaches capture major DC populations, recovery is partial and exhibits method-dependent, subset-specific biases. These differences alter the apparent DC composition and may influence downstream analyses. Created with BioRender.com.