Isolation and purification of human intestinal macrophages.

The gastrointestinal mucosa contained within the lamina propria is the largest reservoir of macrophages in the human body. The isolation and study of this population of cells is important for understanding host defense and the pathogenesis of inflammation in the gastrointestinal mucosa. This unit describes methods that can be used to isolate and purify intestinal macrophages. Sources of intestinal tissue that can be used for this isolation include human subjects undergoing gastrojejunostomy for obesity, organ-transplantation donors, or the noninflamed margin of resected segments of small intestine from subjects undergoing resection for surgically indicated reasons.