For isolation of human skin cells 300 µm dermatome sections were incubated in
RPMI+10%FCS (BioWest) containing 0.8 mg/ml
collagenase (Type IV, Worthington-Biochemical) and 0.05 mg/ml
DNase I (Roche) for 12 h. For nanostring analysis and T cell proliferation assay skin was treated with 1 mg/ml
dispase (Invitrogen) to separate epidermis and dermis. Dermal DCs were sorted by fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS), epidermal LCs were isolated using
CD1a microbeads (Miltenyi Biotec) and a magnet (Stemcell techonologies) with a purity of >90%.
For isolation of mouse skin cells, mice were sacrificed and ears were cut off at the base. Ear skin was split into dorsal and ventral halves and incubated in
RPMI+10%FCS containing 1 mg/ml
dispase (Invitrogen) for 2 h at 37deg. Epidermis and dermis were separated and digested in 0.2 mg/ml
collagenase (Type IV, Sigma) for 2 h at 37deg before passing them through a 70 um filter to obtain a single cell suspension.
Mouse skin-draining auricular lymph nodes were isolated, incubated in medium+0.2 mg/ml
collagenase for 30 min and passed through 70 um filter.
BHK-21 and C6/36 cells were purchased from the American Type Culture Collection.
Cerny D., Haniffa M., Shin A., Bigliardi P., Tan B.K., Lee B., Poidinger M., Tan E.Y., Ginhoux F, & Fink K. (2014). Selective Susceptibility of Human Skin Antigen Presenting Cells to Productive Dengue Virus Infection. PLoS Pathogens, 10(12), e1004548.