Isolation of T cells from mouse oral tissues

BACKGROUND: Utilizing mouse models provides excellent immunological and experimental tools to study oral immune responses. However for functional assays, isolating T lymphocytes from the oral tissues has proved to be challenging due to the absence of reliable methods that yield viable cells with consistency. To study adaptive immune cell interactions in the oral mucosal tissues, it is necessary to isolate T cells with a good viability and study them at the single cell level. FINDINGS: We have established an improved method to isolate immune cells, including T(regs) and Th17 cells from intra-epithelial niches and lamina propria of the tongue, gingival and palatal tissues in the oral mucosa of mice. CONCLUSION: This new method of isolating immune cells from oral tissues will enable us to further our understanding of oral tissue immune cells and their role during oral infections and oral inflammation.