침투 림프구의 분석을위한 비 효소 해리 신선한 인간의 조직에 대한 간단하고 빠른 프로토콜

The tumor microenvironment is composed of various cell types with numerous studies showing they each play distinct and important roles in tumorigenesis^1,2. These include, but are not limited to, infiltrating immune cells, stromal cells, endothelial cells and tumor cells³. Ex vivo studies of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL; CD45⁺ cells or leukocytes, which are predominantly lymphocytes in breast tumors) from fresh human tissue samples is made difficult by their low frequency, the small sample sizes often available for research and the potential for loss of viability during extraction. Because immune cells infiltrating tumors are usually present as passengers rather than permanent residents in general they are easier to release from the tissue matrix.

Dissociating tumor tissue while maintaining cellular integrity is technically challenging and has traditionally been performed using a combination of mechanical and enzymatic steps to prepare single cell suspensions^4-8. This approach involves lengthy incubation periods and is associated with a significant reduction in cell viability as well as the loss of cell surface receptors by enzymatic cleavage. High quality flow cytometric studies characterizing TIL in the tumor microenvironment as well as clean purifications of CD45⁺ subpopulations by flow cytometry or antibody-coated beads are more difficult to achieve from enzyme-digested tumor tissue. In addition, the supernatant (SN) from the resulting tumor homogenate is not amenable to further analysis including quantification of secreted proteins (cytokines, chemokines, immunoglobulins or tumor antigens) or experimental treatment of normal cells, because of the potential for protein degradation in the enzymatic digests.

In our search for a method to prepare single cell homogenates from breast tissues [including tumor, non-adjacent non-tumor (NANT) and normal (from mammary reductions) breast tissues] without enzymatic digestion, we tested a variety of mechanical homogenization techniques. Homogenates prepared using a mechanical dissociator had increased cell viability (2-fold) and total cell recovery (2-fold) while preserving surface receptor expression. Enzymatic digestion of the remaining insoluble material did not recover additional CD45⁺ cells suggesting they were all released in the initial homogenate. Thus, this rapid and simple approach allows both qualitative and quantitative assessment of the CD45⁺ subpopulations present in various normal and malignant human tissues. An added advantage of this approach is that the SN from the initial homogenate (primary tissue SN) can be collected and stored for further analysis or experimentation.