Isolation and Culture of Primary Cholangiocytes from Mice with Polycystic Liver Disease Using a Two-step Digestion Method

In this protocol, we optimized a two-step digestion method to isolate high-purity and high-viability primary cholangiocytes from wild-type mice and mice with polycystic liver disease (PLD). After anesthetizing the mice, the livers were perfused through the inferior vena cava with 50 mL of Solution A, followed by 30 mL of Solution B at 37 °C to enzymatically digest the liver tissue. Mechanical dissociation, shaking, and microdissection were performed to remove adherent parenchymal cells, leaving an intact biliary tree. The biliary tree was then finely minced and digested with shaking for 60 min at 37 °C. The resulting single-cell suspension was collected using a 70 µm cell strainer. Cholangiocytes were purified using immunomagnetic isolation. The cell suspension was incubated with an anti-EpCAM antibody under rotation for 45 min at 4 °C, followed by the addition of Protein G beads and further rotation for another 45 min at 4 °C. After three washes with PBS, the cholangiocytes were collected using a magnetic separator. The purified primary cholangiocytes were resuspended in Cholangiocyte Culture Medium and seeded onto cell culture dishes coated with 1 mg/mL type I rat tail collagen. The purity of the cholangiocytes was confirmed by immunostaining for the cholangiocyte-specific marker cytokeratin-19 (CK19). Although this study focused on isolating primary cholangiocytes from wild-type and PLD mice, we are confident that the protocol can be applied to other disease mouse models as well. This detailed two-step digestion method facilitates in vitro studies of cholangiopathies and the development of targeted therapies.