In both rat and mouse experiments, blood samples were collected under anesthesia 2 h after LPS administration, followed by euthanization and spleen isolation.
In the rat experiment, blood samples were collected in heparinized syringes, and leukocytes were isolated using erythrocyte lysis buffer, as described by Hoffman et al. [11] (
link). The spleen was removed, and splenocytes were harvested by passing the cells through a
nylon mesh cell strainer (Falcon-Corning, Corning, NY, USA). Splenocytes were further purified using Hoffman lysis buffer. The obtained splenocytes were used for the NK cell activity test and RT-qPCR. Splenocytes for RT-qPCR were washed with phosphate-buffered saline, lysed, and homogenized in
RNAiso Plus (Takara Bio Inc., Kusatsu, Japan). A portion of the spleen was sliced and treated with
RNAlater (Sigma-Aldrich, St. Louis, MO, USA) immediately after tissue removal. Treated tissue samples were stored at -70˚C until RNA extraction.
In the mouse experiment, blood samples were collected in heparinized syringes, treated with Buffer DL from the
NucleoSpin RNA Blood Kit (Macherey-Nagel GmbH & Co. KG, Düren, Germany), and kept frozen at -70˚C until RNA extraction. The removed spleen was treated with
RNAlater and processed as described above.
Mitsunaga F., & Nakamura S. (2021). A Sensitive and Simple Method to Assess NK Cell Activity by RT-qPCR for Granzyme B Using Spleen and Blood. Journal of Biosciences and Medicines, 09(03), 27-38.