Enzymatic dissociation induces transcriptional and proteotype bias in brain cell populations

Different cell isolation techniques exist for transcriptomic and proteotype profiling of brain cells. Here we show that standard enzymatic digestion of brain tissue at 37°C induces profound alterations in the transcriptome and proteotype of specific brain cells, as compared to cold mechanical dissociation. These findings emphasize the need to consider intrinsic bias and biological artefacts when implementing enzymatic digestion-based isolation methods for brain cell analyses.