Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 8, 2026
Lymphocyte Isolation from Human Skin for Phenotypic Analysis and Ex Vivo Cell Culture
Published on: April 8, 2016
Immunophenotypic analysis of normal human dendritic cells isolated from epidermis and dermis
F Prignano1, G Gerlini, N Pimpinelli
1Department of Human Anatomy and Histology, University of Florence, Italy.
Background:
The skin immune system comprises two types of dendritic cells, i.e. CD1a-positive Langerhans cells in the epidermis and CD36-positive dendritic macrophages in the dermis. Dendritic cells can migrate from skin explants into a culture medium.
Methods:
We have examined the morphology and immunophenotype of the dendritic cells migrating from epidermal and dermal sheets in vitro. The epidermis and dermis of keratomes of normal human skin were separated with dispase and cultured for 72 h. At this time, the non-adherent cells in the medium were removed, enriched on a metrizamide or Lymphoprep gradient, counted, prepared by cytospin, and labeled for CD1a, CD36, and HLADr.
Results:
Cells migrating from the epidermis and dermis show many thin projections or a few veils from the cell surface. Approximately four times more cells migrate from epidermal than dermal sheets from the same keratome.
Conclusions:
Using methods to separate the epidermis from the dermis, both CD1a-positive Langerhans cells and CD36-positive dendritic macrophages can be obtained from both tissues, although in different numbers.
