Isolation and Functional Characterization of Myeloid-Derived Suppressor Cells in Infections Under High Containment.

The current absence of markers unique to MDSC, particularly those expanded during human infection, necessitate concurrent demonstration of their suppressive capacity to ensure unequivocal identification. This is further complicated by the array of heterogeneous markers used to characterize MDSC in various conditions and models. Standardization of phenotypic and functional characterization, as well as isolation, from infectious biological samples of patients, are critical for accurately reporting MDSC dynamics, function, organ abundance, and establishment of their therapeutic value in infectious diseases. To illustrate, we report on our established method for MDSC isolation from bronchoalveolar lavage fluid and peripheral blood of pulmonary TB patients, as well as functional impact on T cells by measuring T cell activation, proliferation, and cytokine production.