Deoxyribonuclease I (DNase I) is an endonuclease consisting of a single glycosylated polypeptide chain with two disulfide bonds. DNase is often included in tissue dissociation protocols to digest DNA that has leaked into the dissociation medium as a result of cell damage. DNase I preferentially cleaves phosphodiester linkages adjacent to pyrimidine nucleotides in both single- and double-stranded DNA, yielding polynucleotides with 5-phosphate and 3-hydroxyl groups (Bernardi et al.). DNase I has been used for the digestion of human tissues such as microglia (Klegeris & McGeer), cartilage (Dunham & Koch), colon (Fukushima & Fiocchi), epithelium (Fukushima & Fiocchi), liver (Vatakis et al.), lung (Fujino et al.), neural (Fuja et al.), and stem cells (Kusuma et al.).
