Isolation of Intestinal Mesenchymal Cells from Adult Mice

[Abstract] During the last 20 years intestinal mesenchymal cells (IMCs) have emerged as an important cell type that plays a central role in intestinal development and homeostasis, by providing both structural support and growth regulatory elements. IMCs also actively participate in wound healing responses, thus regulating pathologic conditions such as tissue repair, inflammation, fibrosis and carcinogenesis (Powell et al., 2011). We have recently demonstrated that intestinal mesenchymal-specific signals play important in vivo physiological roles in intestinal inflammation and carcinogenesis (Koliaraki et al., 2012; Roulis et al., 2014; Koliaraki et al., 2015). Here we describe the enzymatic method used for the isolation and culture of mesenchymal cells from the adult mouse intestine.