{"title":"Human Skeletal Muscle Niche Formation and Analysis with Spatial RNA Sequencing.","authors":"Ben Clock, Michael Hicks","doi":"10.1007/7651_2025_619","DOIUrl":"10.1007/7651_2025_619","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Formation of the human skeletal muscle can be achieved through xenotransplant of human stem or progenitor cells into mice. Human cells, such as those derived from human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs), are dissociated from in vitro culture conditions and injected into immune-compromised mice where human cells must form new myofibers and retain or replace the mouse muscle stem cell pool. Efforts to better understand niche interactions will lead to improved regenerative potential that could ameliorate a broad range of muscle diseases. Spatial RNA sequencing of xenografted tissues allows for precise transcriptomic profiling of human muscle stem and progenitor cells in relation to myofibers and their niche throughout the myogenic differentiation process. Herein, we describe the procedures of obtaining high yields of human xenografted transplants and compare the use of various spatial RNA sequencing platforms to uncover stem cell niche formation.</p>","PeriodicalId":18490,"journal":{"name":"Methods in molecular biology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-04-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143780461","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Complex Spheroids as an Alternative: In Vivo-Like 3D Model for Investigating the Impact of Stromal Cells on the Radiation Response of Tumors.","authors":"Hanna Sentek, Diana Klein","doi":"10.1007/7651_2025_614","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/7651_2025_614","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Three-dimensional environments that mimic in vivo microenvironments promote native epithelial cell polarity and differentiation by enabling cell-matrix interactions. When tumor cells were embedded as spherical cell aggregates (spheroids) in such microenvironments, particularly in semi-solid extracellular matrices, further the intimate cell-cell adhesion architecture as well as direct cell-matrix interactions can be efficiently recapitulated, including the presence of nutritional and metabolic gradients. The complexity of these spheroids can be further increased by the use of intercalating stromal cells. Here, we describe a simple and rapid method in which tumor and stromal cells are placed in hanging drop culture to generate homogenous and complex spheroids before embedding them in laminin-/collagen IV-rich basement membrane extracts (Matrigel), which in turn can be used as model system for cancer progression and to evaluate the efficacy of anticancer drugs, especially after radiation treatment.</p>","PeriodicalId":18490,"journal":{"name":"Methods in molecular biology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143764526","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Maria Isabel Alonso, Sonia Martínez-Páramo, Francisco Lamus, Ángel Gato
{"title":"Evaluation of Adult Mouse Brain Neurogenic Niche Behavior Culturing Adult Mice Brain Slice In Vitro.","authors":"Maria Isabel Alonso, Sonia Martínez-Páramo, Francisco Lamus, Ángel Gato","doi":"10.1007/7651_2025_611","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/7651_2025_611","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Adult brain neural precursors carry out their biological activity in specific areas in which they are able to self-renew and differentiate into neurons. This is due to a complex microenvironment of cellular interrelations in which soluble factors from the neighboring cells, vascular structures, and the content of the brain ventricle cavity (cerebrospinal fluid) play a key role. This cellular functional entity, known as the \"neurogenic niche,\" is able to generate new mature neurons, which are functionally integrated into the neuronal circuits of the adult mammal brain. The complexity of neurogenic niche signaling, which include biologically active molecules such as growth factors and morphogens, requires an experimental approach in order to create specific modifications of the biological activity of some of these molecules by means of a model of the active neurogenic niche, allowing an evaluation of neural precursor behavior.Here we describe the adaptation of an in vitro culture technique of adult brain slices with selected coronal sections, involving the two main brain neurogenic niches, the sub-ventricular zone (SVZ), and the hippocampus dentate gyrus, together with their associated sub-ependymal zone (SEZ). We explain certain examples of the experimental approach to modify neurogenic niche soluble signaling, implanting latex microbeads as a carrier for soluble signals. Additionally, we introduce an immune-cytochemical approach involving bromodeoxyuridine detection as a neural precursor cellular lineage tracer in combination with different molecular expressions, as a means of testing progressive states of neural precursor differentiation and neuronal maturation.This system represents a suitable strategy for evaluating the biological role of soluble components of the adult brain neurogenic niche.</p>","PeriodicalId":18490,"journal":{"name":"Methods in molecular biology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143764542","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Detection of Cellular Senescence on Murine Muscle Tissue Sections by Senescence-Associated β-Galactosidase Staining.","authors":"Wenxin Zhang, Tom H Cheung","doi":"10.1007/7651_2025_612","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/7651_2025_612","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Staining for the presence of senescence-associated beta-galactosidase (SA-β-gal) serves as a crucial indicator for cellular senescence. This staining assay is based on the elevated activity of β-galactosidase in senescent cells, which cleaves the X-Gal substrate to produce an insoluble blue product in acidic conditions. This enables X-Gal to be visualized using microscopy. In this study, we describe the identification of SA-β-gal<sup>+</sup> cells within murine muscle tissues.</p>","PeriodicalId":18490,"journal":{"name":"Methods in molecular biology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143764541","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Oligopaint FISH in Drosophila Testes.","authors":"Romir Raj, Vedansh Patel, Mayu Inaba","doi":"10.1007/7651_2025_613","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/7651_2025_613","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) is commonly performed to visualize RNA and DNA. It is routinely used in cytogenetics and karyotyping to check for chromosomal abnormalities and diagnose and identify diseases (Levsky and Singer, J Cell Sci 116:2833-2838, 2003). Oligopaints is a recently established DNA FISH method that has quickly become popular because of its flexibility and economical durability. Oligopaints uses computationally designed PCR-renewable oligonucleotides for probes, which can cover a few kilobases to whole chromosomes (Beliveau, Proc Natl Acad Sci 109:21301-21306, 2012). In addition, different fluorophores can be used for desired probe sets for multicolor imaging. Here, we describe an optimized method for implementing the Oligopaints procedure to visualize genomic regions in Drosophila testis. We further discuss the possibility of resolving local microstructure of specific gene loci.</p>","PeriodicalId":18490,"journal":{"name":"Methods in molecular biology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143764543","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nathalia de Lima E Martins Lara, Anja Elsenhans, Ina Dobrinski
{"title":"Testicular Organoid Formation in Microwell Culture.","authors":"Nathalia de Lima E Martins Lara, Anja Elsenhans, Ina Dobrinski","doi":"10.1007/7651_2025_624","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/7651_2025_624","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Testicular organoids present an exciting 3D in vitro platform to bridge the gap between 2D culture and animal models in male reproduction research, allowing studies on testicular cell-cell interactions, morphogenesis, development, and the spermatogonial stem cell microenvironment in conditions that are more physiologically relevant. Therefore, research with testicular organoids offers opportunities for fertility preservation, disease modeling, and high throughput reproductive toxicity screening. Our laboratory has developed a simple and reproducible protocol using microwell plates, which facilitate the aggregation of single cells and promote the generation of thousands of homogenous organoids that recapitulate testicular cytoarchitecture and functions. In this protocol, a testicular cell suspension is obtained by enzymatic digestion of immature testes and centrifuged into pyramid-shaped microwells, where cells will aggregate and form organoids after a few days in culture. Here we detail our standard protocol for the generation of porcine testicular organoids, which can also be applied to other mammalian species.</p>","PeriodicalId":18490,"journal":{"name":"Methods in molecular biology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-03-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143730742","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Organoid-Immune Cell Co-culture for Stable Live Imaging.","authors":"Nathalia Ferreira, Frauke Alves, Andrea Markus","doi":"10.1007/7651_2025_627","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/7651_2025_627","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Patient-derived organoids (PDOs) have emerged as a promising model for personalized drug testing. Generated from human tumor samples, PDOs effectively recapitulate the genetic and phenotypic heterogeneity of patient tumors, making them an ideal ex vivo platform for studying therapeutic responses, particularly to chemotherapies. However, their lack of components of the immune system limits their use in immunotherapy testing. The following protocol facilitates the co-culture of PDOs from tumor tissue with HLA-matched peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) in a fixed Z-plane for stable live-cell imaging. This three-dimensional co-culture method represents a significant advancement in enabling real-time assessment of immunotherapeutic effects on tumor-derived PDOs by live cell imaging.</p>","PeriodicalId":18490,"journal":{"name":"Methods in molecular biology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-03-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143730741","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Alessio A Cusmano, Cordell A VanGenderen, Tim O Lorenz, Yafen Yang, Natasha C Chang
{"title":"Efficient Isolation and Ex Vivo Differentiation of Murine Satellite Cells from Healthy and Dystrophic Muscle.","authors":"Alessio A Cusmano, Cordell A VanGenderen, Tim O Lorenz, Yafen Yang, Natasha C Chang","doi":"10.1007/7651_2025_608","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/7651_2025_608","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Satellite cells are the stem cells of adult skeletal muscles and confer skeletal muscle with remarkable regenerative ability. Under homeostatic conditions, satellite cells reside in a quiescent state in their niche along the basal lamina of muscle fibers. Upon receiving stimuli, satellite cells activate and engage in regenerative myogenesis to repair damaged fibers. Due to the impact of satellite cell differentiation on muscle physiology, studying their differentiation is relevant both within the context of healthy and diseased muscle. Due to the abundance of cell populations within skeletal muscle, the study of satellite cells is predicated on isolating highly pure populations. Fluorescence activated cell sorting (FACS) represents the gold standard for deriving highly pure satellite cell isolates but is costly and can reduce cell viability. In addition, proliferating satellite cells in vitro invariably transition to a homogeneous myoblast population that bestows a selective advantage on fast-dividing cells, reducing satellite cell heterogeneity. In this chapter, we describe our protocol for magnetic-activated cell sorting (MACS) of satellite cells. MACS preserves cell viability to a greater degree than FACS, and our approach allows for highly pure sorted populations of satellite cells. In addition, sorted cells can enter and progress through the myogenic program immediately upon plating, avoiding the need for lengthy expansion periods.</p>","PeriodicalId":18490,"journal":{"name":"Methods in molecular biology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-03-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143674220","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Lisa Marie Stasch, Maja Buchholzki, Zehra Sevindik, Bettina Budeus, Diana Klein
{"title":"Matrix-Free Normal Human Epithelial-Fibroblast 3D Spheroid Cultures for In Vitro Lung Modeling.","authors":"Lisa Marie Stasch, Maja Buchholzki, Zehra Sevindik, Bettina Budeus, Diana Klein","doi":"10.1007/7651_2025_622","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/7651_2025_622","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The cellular responses of classical 2D flat monolayer cell culture systems provide only very limited reliable predictions about possible outcomes of corresponding animal experiments and clinical studies, which is due, among other things, to the lack of (bi)directional signaling transmission between different cell types and the lack of a structural microenvironment. To study the interactive communication between different cell types in vitro, two main co-culture methods have emerged as central techniques. In the indirect co-culture method, different cells are cultured physically separately (e.g., using transwell inserts) but can communicate with each other via secreted factors (paracrine mechanism). In the direct co-culture method, the different cells have direct physical contact, which enables direct interactions. Regarding the latter method, the cultivation of cells as spherical cell aggregates, so-called spheroids, embedded in a semi-solid extracellular matrix has been established as an in vivo-related, more complex cell culture model with different functional cell states according to cell-cell and cell-ECM interactions as well as oxygen and nutrient gradients. Here, we present a matrix-free method for direct spheroidal co-cultivation of human bronchial epithelial cells and fibroblasts, which can be considered as an in vivo-approximated cultivation method, especially with regard to the cellular composition of the respective spheroids.</p>","PeriodicalId":18490,"journal":{"name":"Methods in molecular biology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-03-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143663697","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Bettina Budeus, Chiara Kroepel, Lisa Marie Stasch, Diana Klein
{"title":"Free-Floating Human Lung Organoids Derived from Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells.","authors":"Bettina Budeus, Chiara Kroepel, Lisa Marie Stasch, Diana Klein","doi":"10.1007/7651_2025_621","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/7651_2025_621","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Lung diseases are one of the leading causes of death worldwide, and the global burden of these respiratory diseases continues to increase. Therefore, there is a need for accurate models for basic and translational research. In addition to animal models, the development of alternative in vitro model systems is progressing rapidly, ranging from advanced lung cell cultures to complex tissue-engineered lungs. Human lung organoids have become easily transferable three-dimensional in vitro model systems for lung disease modeling. Here, we present a detailed protocol for a rather simple and therefore very practical but reliable method to generate lung organoids from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) without relying on a matrix, which would represent a step forward toward animal-origin and/or component-free in vitro modeling.</p>","PeriodicalId":18490,"journal":{"name":"Methods in molecular biology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-03-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143663693","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}