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Updated: Jun 4, 2026
Isolation of Brain and Spinal Cord Mononuclear Cells Using Percoll Gradients
Published on: February 2, 2011
Isolation of brain and spinal cord mononuclear cells using percoll gradients
Paula A Pino1, Astrid E Cardona
1Department of Biology and South Texas Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases, USA.
Insights
This study presents a rapid protocol for isolating mononuclear cells from the central nervous system (CNS). This method allows for efficient immune cell identification using flow cytometry, aiding research in CNS diseases.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Immunology
- Cell Biology
Background:
- Characterizing immune cells in the central nervous system (CNS) is crucial for understanding diseases like infection, trauma, autoimmunity, and neurodegeneration.
- Current histological methods have limitations in simultaneously identifying multiple immune cell subtypes within CNS tissues.
- Combining histological approaches with flow cytometry is essential for comprehensive analysis of CNS immune infiltration.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop and describe a rapid protocol for the efficient isolation of mononuclear cells from brain and spinal cord tissues.
- To enable the identification of diverse immune cell populations within a single CNS sample using flow cytometry.
Main Methods:
- The protocol involves the separation of CNS cellular suspensions over discontinuous Percoll gradients.
- This method facilitates the isolation of mononuclear cells from both brain and spinal cord tissues.
Main Results:
- The described protocol allows for the rapid and efficient isolation of mononuclear cells from CNS tissues.
- The isolated cells are suitable for comprehensive immune phenotyping by flow cytometry, enabling the identification of various immune cell populations.
Conclusions:
- This protocol provides a valuable tool for researchers studying immune responses in the CNS.
- It overcomes limitations of traditional methods, allowing for a more thorough characterization of immune cell infiltration in neurological conditions.
Abstract:
Isolation of immune cells that infiltrate the central nervous system (CNS) during infection, trauma, autoimmunity or neurodegeneration, is often required to define their phenotype and effector functions. Histochemical approaches are instrumental to determine the location of the infiltrating cells and to analyze the associated CNS pathology. However, in-situ histochemistry and immunofluorescent staining techniques are limited by the number of antibodies that can be used at a single time to characterize immune cell subtypes in a particular tissue. Therefore, histological approaches in conjunction with immune-phenotyping by flow cytometry are critical to fully characterize the composition of local CNS infiltration. This protocol is based on the separation of CNS cellular suspensions over discontinous percoll gradients. The current article describes a rapid protocol to efficiently isolate mononuclear cells from brain and spinal cord tissues that can be effectively utilized for identification of various immune cell populations in a single sample by flow cytometry.
