Following viral infection, kidney harbors a relatively large number of CD8+ T cells and offers an opportunity to study non-mucosal TRM cells. Here, we describe a protocol to isolate mouse kidney lymphocytes for flow cytometry analysis.
Tissue-resident memory T cell (TRM) is a rapidly expanding field of immunology research. Isolating T cells from various non-lymphoid tissues is one of the key steps to investigate TRMs. There are slight variations in lymphocyte isolation protocols for different organs. Kidney is an essential non-lymphoid organ with numerous immune cell infiltration especially after pathogen exposure or autoimmune activation. In recent years, multiple labs including our own have started characterizing kidney resident CD8+ T cells in various physiological and pathological settings in both mouse and human. Due to the abundance of T lymphocytes, kidney represents an attractive model organ to study TRMs in non-mucosal or non-barrier tissues. Here, we will describe a protocol commonly used in TRM-focused labs to isolate CD8+ T cells from mouse kidneys following systemic viral infection. Briefly, using an acute lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV) infection model in C57BL/6 mice, we demonstrate intravascular CD8+ T cell labeling, enzymatic digestion, and density gradient centrifugation to isolate and enrich lymphocytes from mouse kidneys to make samples ready for the subsequent flow cytometry analysis.
Tissue-resident memory (TRM) T cells represent one of the most abundant T cell populations in adult human and infected mice. TRM cells provide the first line of immune defense and are critically involved in various physiological and pathological processes1,2,3,4,5. Comparing with circulating T cells, TRM cells carry distinct surface markers with unique transcription programs6,7,8. Expanding our knowledge of TRM biology is the key to understanding T cell responses which is essential for future development of T cell-based vaccines and immunotherapies.
In addition to commonly shared molecular markers of TRMs across all non-lymphoid tissues, accumulating evidence suggest that tissue-specific features are a central component of TRM biology9. Kidney harbors many immune cells including TRM cells after infection and offers a great opportunity to study TRM cell biology in a non-mucosal tissue. Acute LCMV (lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus) infection via intraperitoneal route is a well-established systemic infection model to study antigen-specific T cell responses in mice. The infection is usually resolved in 7-10 days in wild type mice and leave a large number of LCMV-specific memory T cells in a variety of tissues, including the kidney10. P14 TCR (T cell receptor) transgenic mice carry CD8+ T cells recognize one of the immune-dominant epitopes of LCMV presented by MHC-I (class I major histocompatibility complex) molecule H2-Db in C57BL/6 mice. Combining congenically marked P14 T cell adoptive transfer and LCMV infection in mice, CD8+ effector and memory T cells are tracked, including TRM differentiation and homeostasis.
In some barrier tissues, such as intestinal intraepithelial lymphocytes (IEL) compartment and salivary glands, established lymphocyte isolation procedure yields high percentage of TRM cells with minimal blood borne T cell contamination in mouse LCMV model11. However, in non-barrier tissues, such as the kidney, dense vascular network contains a large number of circulating CD8+ T cells. It has been well documented that even successful perfusion cannot efficiently remove all circulating CD8+ T cells. To overcome this technical hurdle, intravascular antibody staining has been established as one of the most commonly used techniques in TRM labs12. In brief, 3-5 minutes before euthanasia, 3 µg/mouse anti-CD8 antibody (to label CD8+ T cells) is delivered intravenously. Intact blood vessel wall prevents rapid diffusion of the antibody within this short period of time (i.e., 3-5 minutes) and only intravascular cells are labeled. Following standard lymphocyte isolation protocol, intravascular versus extravascular cells can be easily distinguished using flow cytometry.
Here, we will describe a standard protocol commonly used in TRM labs to perform intravascular labeling, lymphocyte isolation and flow cytometry analysis of kidney CD8+ T cells using a C57BL/6 mouse that has received CD45.1+ P14 T cells and LCMV infection 30 days before13. Same protocol can be used to study both effector and memory T cells in the kidney.
All animal experiments performed following this protocol must be approved by the respective institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC). All procedures described here have been approved by IACUC UT Health San Antonio.
1. Adoptive transfer of P14 T cells into C57BL/6 recipients and LCMV infection
2. Intravascular labeling of CD8+ T cells
NOTE: Depending on the research interests, different time points can be chosen following infection. An example of day 30 post infection (day 30 after step 1.4) is demonstrated, which is often considered as an early memory time point for CD8 T cell response.
3. Enzymatic digestion of the kidney
4. Density gradient centrifugation to enrich lymphocytes from the digested kidney
5. Flow cytometry staining and analysis
NOTE: Please follow standard flow cytometry staining protocol for T lymphocytes.
The protocol described here is summarized in a flow chart (Figure 1A). At day 30 post LCMV infection, we performed intravascular labeling of CD8+ T cells. 5 minutes later, both kidneys of the animal were dissected, minced and subjected to collagenase digestion. Lymphocytes were further purified from the digested samples via Percoll centrifugation and analyzed by flow cytometry. As shown in Figure 1B, even after density centrifugation-mediated lymphocyte enrichment, it was very common to see a large portion of non-lymphocytes in the final product. However, after gating on live lymphocytes, it was easy to identify CD8+ T lymphocytes. We could distinguish intravascular vs extravascular CD8+ T cells. Due to highly correlative expression pattern of CD8α and CD8β on CD8+ T cells, it is expected that intravascular CD8+ T cells exhibit a diagonal pattern on CD8α-CD8β FACS profile. As expected, only extravascular CD8+ T cell efficiently acquired TRM phenotypes, such as upregulation of CD69 and downregulation of Ly6C (Figure 1B). In our experiments, we were interested in donor P14 T cells with congenic marker CD45.1. Using the same protocol, endogenous host derived CD8+ T cells can be examined as well. In contrast to infected mice, the vast majority of CD8+ T cells isolated from young naïve mice housed in SPF facility were labeled with i.v. CD8α antibody and, therefore, belonged to the intravascular compartment (Figure 1C).
Figure 1: Representative results.
(A) Flowchart of the protocol. (B) At day 30 post infection, kidney lymphocytes were analyzed by flow cytometry. Representative FACS profiles and gating strategy are shown. The numbers indicate the percentage of gated subsets in their parental population. (C) Representative FACS profile of kidney CD8+ T cells isolated from a naïve mouse. Please click here to view a larger version of this figure.
Reagent | Recipe | NOTE |
100% Percoll | 9 volumes of Percoll + 1 volume of 10xPBS | |
44% Percoll/RPMI | 44% Vol of 100% Percoll + 56% Vol serum free RPMI | Made fresh from 100% Percoll |
67% Percoll/PBS | 67% Vol of 100% Percoll + 33% Vol PBS | Made fresh from 100% Percoll |
Digestion buffer | RPMI + 2% FCS + 1mg/ml collagenase B | Made fresh from collagenase stock |
PBS/5% FCS washing buffer | PBS + 5% FCS | |
FACS buffer | PBS + 2% FCS + 0.02% NaN3 | Stored at 4°C |
Fixing buffer | PBS + 2% formaldehyde | Stored at RT and protected from light |
Table 1: List of recipes for all solution and buffer used in current protocol.
As tissue specific immunity is a rapid expanding area of research, accumulating evidence suggest that immune cells, especially lymphocytes population can be identified in almost all organs in adult human or infected or immunized mice. LCMV mouse infection model is a well-established model to study antigen-specific T cell response, effector and memory T cell differentiation including TRM biology across multiple tissues. Here, we described a protocol to analyze CD8+ T cells in the kidney. This protocol is largely adapted from publications focused on TRM12. Presumably due to high level P2RX7 expression and enzymatic digestion induced cell death15, lymphocytes yield from the current protocol is best suited for immediate phenotypic analysis. However, with established protocol to inhibit P2RX7 induced cell death16, it is conceivable that the current protocol can be easily modified (e.g., with the addition of inhibitors to block P2RX7 signaling) to increase the cell survival and be suited for other long-term functional assays. Proper control groups should be included to ensure that P2RX7 inhibitors do not interfere with interested functional assays.
Kidney CD8+ TRM cells are largely generated in response to infection or environmental antigens. We have use intravascular labeling protocol to directly analyze kidney CD8+ T cells isolated from 5-6-week-old naïve C57BL/6 mice. Consistent with published results17, there is almost no extravascular CD8+ T cells in these “clean” mice (Figure 1C). An elegant study has demonstrated that the majority of memory CD8+ T cells identified in non-lymphoid tissues are TRM10. In contrast, using a similar infection system, we often detect a significant population of CD69– cells (most likely represent TEM cells or CD69– TRM cells) even in the extravascular compartment. The discrepancy may be due to the facts that 1) different techniques are used, i.e., microscope vs flow cytometry; 2) early vs late memory time points are focused and 3) CD69 is not a perfect marker to identify TRM. Enzymatic digestion and flow cytometry will significantly under-estimate the total number of TRM cells. However, as a convenient and non-labor-intensive protocol, it is still commonly accepted in most TRM studies.
The gold standard to definitively identify TRM cells is to perform parabiosis experiment. Although the protocol described here provides a convenient way to identify kidney-resident T cells, the results from this protocol only prove that at the time when the mice are euthanized, the T cells are residing outside the blood vessels in the kidney. This protocol alone does not provide any information about the migratory history of T cells.
In addition to infections, any kidney targeting immune responses, including autoimmune responses may induce the differentiation of a significant subset of kidney-resident T cells can be studied using a similar protocol. Further, as described before12, this protocol can be easily modified to use anti-CD45 antibody (to label all hematopoietic cells) to study other kidney-resident immune cells. Together, we demonstrated a relatively convenient way to isolate and analyze CD8+ T cells from the kidney, which can be adapted to various models including infection and autoimmunity.
The authors have nothing to disclose.
This work is supported by NIH grants AI125701 and AI139721, Cancer Research Institute CLIP program and American Cancer Society grant RSG-18-222-01-LIB to N.Z. We thank Karla Gorena and Sebastian Montagnino from Flow Cytometry Facility. Data generated in the Flow Cytometry Shared Resource Facility were supported by the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UTHSCSA), NIH/NCI grant P30 CA054174-20 (Clinical and Translational Research Center [CTRC] at UTHSCSA), and UL1 TR001120 (Clinical and Translational Science Award).
1.5 ml microcentrifuge tubes | Fisherbrand | 05-408-130 | |
15 ml Conical Tubes | Corning | 431470 | |
3 ml syringe | BD | 309657 | |
37C incubator | VWR | ||
Biotin a-CD8a antibody(Clone 53-6.7) | Tonbo Biosciences | 30-0081-U025 | |
Calf Serum | GE Healthcare Life Sciences | SH30073.03 | |
Collegenase B | Millipore Sigma | 11088807001 | |
Disposable Graduated Transfer Pipettes | Fisherbrand | 13-711-9AM | |
Insulin Syringe | BD | 329424 | |
Micro Dissecting Spring Scissors | Roboz Surgical | RS 5692 | |
Mojosort Mouse CD8 Naïve T Cells Isolation Kit | Biolegend | 480043 | |
overhead heat lamp | Amazon | B00333PZZG | |
PBS | |||
Percoll | GE Healthcare Life Sciences | 17089101 | |
rocker | VWR | ||
RPMI | GE Healthcare Life Sciences | SH30096.01 | |
Solid Brass Mouse Restrainer | Braintree Scientific, Inc | SAI-MBR | |
Swing Bucket Centrifuge with refrigerator | Thermofisher | ||
Tissue Culture 6-well plate | Corning | 3516 |