Abstract
The spleen is a vastly vasculated organ and consists of a complex organized network of innate and adaptive immune cells. This permits the specialized functions of the spleen such as antibacterial and antifungal immunity and iron metabolism among others (Mebius and Kraal, 2005). Different dendritic cell (DC) subsets reside in the spleen and can be defined by the expression of unique surface markers. These DC subsets are recognized to perform non-redundant functions in the immune system (Merad et al., 2013). In our recent study, we found that Inositol Requiring Enzyme (IRE)-1 is specifically activated in splenic CD8a+ DCs. Furthermore, loss of X-box binding protein (XBP)-1 - the transcription factor regulated by IRE-1 - resulted in defective cross-presentation of dead cell associated antigens by splenic CD8a+ DCs (Osorio et al., 2014). This protocol allows the isolation of specific DC subsets for experimental use ex-vivo.