The tumour pieces were transferred to a tissue digestion C-tube (Miltenyi) and further dissociated enzymatically and mechanically on a gentleMACS Dissociator (Miltenyi). Briefly, the impTumour_03 program was run on the dissociator, followed by a 10-minute incubation at 37°C. Next, the m_Lung_02 program was run to maximize extraction of pericytes and endothelial cells, followed by a 10-minute incubation at 37°C. After a final run of the m_Lung_02 program, the digestion reaction was stopped with albumin-rich buffer (RPMI-1640 medium containing 0.5% bovine serum albumin (BSA)) (Miltenyi). A single cell suspension was obtained by filtering through a 70-μm cell strainer.
Single cell suspensions were centrifuged for 5 minutes at 1,400 g, resuspended in RBC lysis buffer (eBioscience), incubated on ice for 2 minutes, and washed with PBS containing 1.5% FBS (or without FBS if the downstream flow cytometry staining panel included a Ghost Dye (Tonbo)).