Sebaceous gland differentiation: II. The isolation, separation and characterization of cells from the mouse preputial gland.

Viable cells have been isolated, by enzyme digestion, from mouse preputial glands and have been separated, by isopycnic centrifugation, into populations of different buoyant densities. The separated cells have been evaluated by morphological and biochemical criteria to assess the success of the separation procedure in terms of the stage of differentiation of each cell population. Use of Ficoll as gradient medium for the isopycnic centrifugation proved unsuccessful, but good separations were obtained when Metrizamide was used. The separated cells from the Metrizamide gradient were shown to be in different stages of differentiation. Techniques are described for the special handling of these cells as well as suitable assay procedures. Some of the properties of the separated cells are described.