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Updated: Jun 18, 2026
Isolation of Mouse Lung Dendritic Cells
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Isolation of skin dendritic cells from mouse and man
Patrizia Stoitzner1, Nikolaus Romani, Alexander D McLellan
1Department of Dermatology and Venereology, Innsbruck Medical University, Innsbruck, Austria.
Insights
Isolating rare skin dendritic cells (DC) for research is challenging. This study details methods like enzymatic digestion and explant culture to obtain sufficient epidermal Langerhans cells (LC) and dermal DC for experiments.
Area of Science:
- Immunology
- Dermatology
- Cell Biology
Background:
- Dendritic cells (DC) are vital for initiating immune responses.
- Skin contains distinct DC subsets: epidermal Langerhans cells (LC) and dermal DC.
- Investigating skin DC is difficult due to their low abundance in tissues.
Purpose of the Study:
- To describe established methods for isolating skin dendritic cells.
- To provide techniques for obtaining sufficient cell numbers for experimental analysis.
Main Methods:
- Enzymatic digestion of skin tissue.
- Skin explant culture to allow DC migration.
- In vitro culture of epidermal Langerhans cells (LC) using trypsinization.
- Cell enrichment via gradient centrifugation and magnetic bead sorting.
Main Results:
- Mature skin DC can be obtained from skin explant cultures.
- Immature epidermal Langerhans cells (LC) can be isolated and enriched.
- Both human and mouse skin DC isolation methods are presented.
Conclusions:
- Established protocols facilitate the isolation of skin dendritic cells.
- These methods address the challenge of low cell numbers in skin DC research.
- The described techniques support further investigation into skin immunity.
Abstract:
Dendritic cells (DC) are crucial for the induction of immune responses and populate various tissues to fulfil their special role. The skin harbours different DC subsets, the Langerhans cells (LC) in the epidermis and the dermal DC in the dermis. The investigation of skin DC is cumbersome since these cells are rare in the skin. As a consequence, it is laborious to receive enough cells from the tissue for experiments. Several approaches have been developed to isolate skin DC based on either enzymatic digestion of the tissue or skin explant culture. Immature LC can be obtained by trypsinization of epidermis, cultured in vitro and be highly enriched with gradient centrifugation and magnetic bead sorting. Mature skin DC can be easily received from skin explant culture. For this purpose skin pieces are cultured for several days and migratory DC emigrate from epidermis and dermis. Both techniques are described for human and mouse skin in the following chapter of the book.
