Isolation of murine small bowel intraepithelial lymphocytes

A method for the preparation of cellular suspensions of the epithelium of murine small bowel for the purpose of isolation and recovery of intraepithelial lymphocytes employing intraluminal hyaluronidase digestion is described. Discontinuous Percoll centrifugation of these suspensions yielded a 76-82% pure population of intraepithelial lymphocytes. Between 1.6 and 4.0 X 10(7) viable intraepithelial lymphocytes were obtained per gram of gut. The isolate contained approximately equal numbers of T, B and null lymphocytes.