Isolation of porcine monocyte population: a simple and efficient method.

Monocytes are important mediators of inflammatory processes and are in the focus of immunological studies. While the preparation of human monocytes is widely established, little is published on the isolation of porcine monocytes for experimental studies. The aim of this study is to establish a cost efficient method of preparing and culturing porcine monocytes of considerable purity and reasonable yield. In our method, we combined and modified different protocols of human monocyte preparation. The blood of a single pig is harvested and treated with EDTA to prevent coagulation. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells are obtained by a density gradient centrifugation using a Bicoll gradient and monocytes are harvested by culturing on serum-treated culture flasks, rinsing and tapping. A high yield is obtained by constant cooling of flasks and tubes. The purity of the culture is evaluated by the expression of CD14, using flow cytometry. Using this method, we reached a purity of 92.6 % (± 3.06 %). With this procedure, we established a reliable method to prepare and cultivate porcine monocytes which can be performed cost effectively and does not require special equipment.