Bio-protocolPub Date : 2023-09-05DOI: 10.21769/BioProtoc.4805
Melissa Crawford, Kevin Barr, Lina Dagnino
{"title":"Isolation, Purification, and Culture of Embryonic Melanoblasts from Green Fluorescent Protein-expressing Reporter Mice.","authors":"Melissa Crawford, Kevin Barr, Lina Dagnino","doi":"10.21769/BioProtoc.4805","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21769/BioProtoc.4805","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>In this article, we provide a method to isolate embryonic melanoblasts from reporter mouse strains. The mice from which these cells are isolated are bred into the <i>ROSA26</i><sup>mT/mG</sup> reporter background, which results in green fluorescent protein (GFP) expression in the targeted melanoblast population. These cells are isolated and purified by fluorescence-activated cell sorting using GFP fluorescence. We also provide a method to culture the purified melanoblasts for further analysis. This method yields > 99% purity melanoblasts specifically targeted, and can be used for a variety of studies, including gene expression, clonogenic experiments, and biological assays, such as viability, capacity for directional migration, or differentiation into melanin-producing melanocytic cells.</p>","PeriodicalId":8938,"journal":{"name":"Bio-protocol","volume":"13 17","pages":"e4805"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://ftp.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pub/pmc/oa_pdf/9c/75/BioProtoc-13-17-4805.PMC10501914.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"10654907","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Bio-protocolPub Date : 2023-09-05DOI: 10.21769/BioProtoc.4797
Serkan Sayin, Amir Mitchell
{"title":"Functional Assay for Measuring Bacterial Degradation of Gemcitabine Chemotherapy.","authors":"Serkan Sayin, Amir Mitchell","doi":"10.21769/BioProtoc.4797","DOIUrl":"10.21769/BioProtoc.4797","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Drug biotransformation by the host microbiome can impact the therapeutic success of treatment. In the context of cancer, drug degradation can take place within the microenvironment of the targeted tumor by intratumor bacteria. In pancreatic cancer, increased chemo-resistance against the frontline chemotherapy gemcitabine is thought to arise from drug degradation by the tumor microbiome. This bacterial-drug interaction highlights the need for developing rapid assays for monitoring bacterial gemcitabine breakdown. While chemical approaches such as high-performance liquid chromatography are suitable for this task, they require specialized equipment and expertise and are limited in throughput. Functional cell-based assays represent an alternate approach for performing this task. We developed a functional assay to monitor the rate of bacterial gemcitabine breakdown using a highly sensitive bacterial reporter strain. Our method relies on standard laboratory equipment and can be implemented at high throughput to monitor drug breakdown by hundreds of strains simultaneously. This functional assay can be readily adapted to monitor degradation of other drugs. Key features Quantification of gemcitabine breakdown by incubating bacteria that degrades the drug and subsequently testing the growth of a reporter strain on filtered supernatant. Use of an optimized reporter strain that was genetically engineered to be a non-degrader strain and highly sensitive to gemcitabine. A high-throughput assay performed in microplates that can be adjusted for identifying bacteria with a fast or slow gemcitabine degradation rate. The assay results can be compared to results from a standard curve with known drug concentrations to quantify degradation rate.</p>","PeriodicalId":8938,"journal":{"name":"Bio-protocol","volume":"13 17","pages":"e4797"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10501921/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"10359859","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Bio-protocolPub Date : 2023-08-20DOI: 10.21769/BioProtoc.4757
Maria Elena Melica, Maria Lucia Angelotti, Giulia Antonelli, Anna J Peired, Carolina Conte, Letizia De Chiara, Benedetta Mazzinghi, Elena Lazzeri, Laura Lasagni, Paola Romagnani
{"title":"Preparation of Human Kidney Progenitor Cultures and Their Differentiation into Podocytes.","authors":"Maria Elena Melica, Maria Lucia Angelotti, Giulia Antonelli, Anna J Peired, Carolina Conte, Letizia De Chiara, Benedetta Mazzinghi, Elena Lazzeri, Laura Lasagni, Paola Romagnani","doi":"10.21769/BioProtoc.4757","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21769/BioProtoc.4757","url":null,"abstract":"Kidney diseases are a global health concern. Modeling of kidney disease for translational research is often challenging because of species specificities or the postmitotic status of kidney epithelial cells that make primary cultures, for example podocytes. Here, we report a protocol for preparing primary cultures of podocytes based on the isolation and in vitro propagation of immature kidney progenitor cells subsequently differentiated into mature podocytes. This protocol can be useful for studying physiology and pathophysiology of human kidney progenitors and to obtain differentiated podocytes for modeling podocytopathies and other kidney disorders involving podocytes.","PeriodicalId":8938,"journal":{"name":"Bio-protocol","volume":"13 16","pages":"e4757"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-08-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10450739/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"10109822","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Determination of Poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) Content in Cyanobacterium <i>Synechocystis</i> sp. PCC 6803 Using Acid Hydrolysis Followed by High-performance Liquid Chromatography.","authors":"Janine Kaewbai-Ngam, Aran Incharoensakdi, Tanakarn Monshupanee","doi":"10.21769/BioProtoc.4790","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21769/BioProtoc.4790","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Various photoautotrophic cyanobacteria accumulate intracellular poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) (PHB) granules. This protocol can be used for determining the PHB contents of the cells as % PHB weight per dry cell weight using acid hydrolysis followed by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). This HPLC analysis is rapid, with a running time of approximately 5 min per sample. The technique can accurately determine PHB concentrations in the range of 2-1,000 μg/mL PHB. However, this technique is not applicable for determining the contents of poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate) in cyanobacteria.</p>","PeriodicalId":8938,"journal":{"name":"Bio-protocol","volume":"13 16","pages":"e4790"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-08-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://ftp.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pub/pmc/oa_pdf/f0/e1/BioProtoc-13-16-4790.PMC10450728.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"10483843","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Bio-protocolPub Date : 2023-08-20DOI: 10.21769/BioProtoc.4742
Liang Cui, Meisam Yousefi, Xin Yap, Clara W T Koh, Kwan Sing Leona Tay, Yaw Shin Ooi, Kuan Rong Chan
{"title":"Mass Spectrometry-based Lipidomics, Lipid Bioenergetics, and Web Tool for Lipid Profiling and Quantification in Human Cells.","authors":"Liang Cui, Meisam Yousefi, Xin Yap, Clara W T Koh, Kwan Sing Leona Tay, Yaw Shin Ooi, Kuan Rong Chan","doi":"10.21769/BioProtoc.4742","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21769/BioProtoc.4742","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Lipids can play diverse roles in metabolism, signaling, transport across membranes, regulating body temperature, and inflammation. Some viruses have evolved to exploit lipids in human cells to promote viral entry, fusion, replication, assembly, and energy production through fatty acid beta-oxidation. Hence, studying the virus-lipid interactions provides an opportunity to understand the biological processes involved in the viral life cycle, which can facilitate the development of antivirals. Due to the diversity and complexity of lipids, the assessment of lipid utilization in infected host cells can be challenging. However, the development of mass spectrometry, bioenergetics profiling, and bioinformatics has significantly advanced our knowledge on the study of lipidomics. Herein, we describe the detailed methods for lipid extraction, mass spectrometry, and assessment of fatty acid oxidation on cellular bioenergetics, as well as the bioinformatics approaches for detailed lipid analysis and utilization in host cells. These methods were employed for the investigation of lipid alterations in TMEM41B- and VMP1-deficient cells, where we previously found global dysregulations of the lipidome in these cells. Furthermore, we developed a web app to plot clustermaps or heatmaps for mass spectrometry data that is open source and can be hosted locally or at https://kuanrongchan-lipid-metabolite-analysis-app-k4im47.streamlit.app/. This protocol provides an efficient step-by-step methodology to assess lipid composition and usage in host cells.</p>","PeriodicalId":8938,"journal":{"name":"Bio-protocol","volume":"13 16","pages":"e4742"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-08-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10450793/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"10483841","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Catheterization of Pulmonary and Carotid Arteries for Concurrent Measurement of Mean Pulmonary and Systemic Arterial Pressure in Rat Models of Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension.","authors":"Tanoy Sarkar, Ayman Isbatan, Sakib M Moinuddin, Jiwang Chen, Fakhrul Ahsan","doi":"10.21769/BioProtoc.4737","DOIUrl":"10.21769/BioProtoc.4737","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is a group of pulmonary vascular disorders in which mean pulmonary arterial pressure (mPAP) becomes abnormally high because of various pathological conditions, including remodeling of the pulmonary arteries, lung and heart disorders, or congenital conditions. Various animal models, including mouse and rat models, have been used to recapitulate elevated mPAP observed in PH patients. However, the measurement and recording of mPAP and mean systemic arterial pressure (mSAP) in small animals require microsurgical procedures and a sophisticated data acquisition system. In this paper, we describe the surgical procedures for right heart catheterizations (RHC) to measure mPAP in rats. We also explain the catheterization of the carotid artery for simultaneous measurement of mPAP and mSAP using the PowerLab Data Acquisition system. We enumerate the surgical steps involved in exposing the jugular vein and the carotid artery for catheterizing these two blood vessels. We list the tools used for microsurgery in rats, describe the methods for preparing catheters, and illustrate the process for inserting the catheters in the pulmonary and carotid arteries. Finally, we delineate the steps involved in the calibration and setup of the PowerLab system for recording both mPAP and mSAP. This is the first protocol wherein we meticulously explain the surgical procedures for RHC in rats and the recording of mPAP and mSAP. We believe this protocol will be essential for PH research. Investigators with little training in animal handling can reproduce this microsurgical procedure for RHC in rats and measure mPAP and mSAP in rat models of PH. Further, this protocol is likely to help master RHC in rats that are performed for other conditions, such as heart failure, congenital heart disease, heart valve disorders, and heart transplantation.</p>","PeriodicalId":8938,"journal":{"name":"Bio-protocol","volume":"13 16","pages":"e4737"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-08-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10461069/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"10118311","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Bio-protocolPub Date : 2023-08-20DOI: 10.21769/BioProtoc.4769
Kevin Baudry, Emmanuelle Issakidis-Bourguet
{"title":"A Semi-throughput Procedure for Assaying Plant NADP-malate Dehydrogenase Activity Using a Plate Reader.","authors":"Kevin Baudry, Emmanuelle Issakidis-Bourguet","doi":"10.21769/BioProtoc.4769","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21769/BioProtoc.4769","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Chloroplast NADP-dependent malate dehydrogenase (NADP-MDH) is a redox regulated enzyme playing an important role in plant redox homeostasis. Leaf NADP-MDH activation level is considered a proxy for the chloroplast redox status. NADP-MDH enzyme activity is commonly assayed spectrophotometrically by following oxaloacetate-dependent NADPH oxidation at 340 nm. We have developed a plate-adapted protocol to monitor NADP-MDH activity allowing faster data production and lower reagent consumption compared to the classic cuvette format of a spectrophotometer. We provide a detailed procedure to assay NADP-MDH activity and measure the enzyme activation state in purified protein preparations or in leaf extracts. This protocol is provided together with a semi-automatized data analysis procedure using an R script.</p>","PeriodicalId":8938,"journal":{"name":"Bio-protocol","volume":"13 16","pages":"e4769"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-08-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://ftp.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pub/pmc/oa_pdf/35/73/BioProtoc-13-16-4769.PMC10450749.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"10483838","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Bio-protocolPub Date : 2023-08-20DOI: 10.21769/BioProtoc.4739
Inés Paniagua, Jacqueline J L Jacobs
{"title":"Quantification of Chromosomal Aberrations in Mammalian Cells.","authors":"Inés Paniagua, Jacqueline J L Jacobs","doi":"10.21769/BioProtoc.4739","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21769/BioProtoc.4739","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Maintenance of genome integrity requires efficient and faithful resolution of DNA breaks and DNA replication obstacles. Dysfunctions in any of the processes orchestrating such resolution can lead to chromosomal instability, which appears as numerical and structural chromosome aberrations. Conventional cytogenetics remains as the golden standard method to detect naturally occurring chromosomal aberrations or those resulting from the treatment with genotoxic drugs. However, the success of cytogenetic studies depends on having high-quality chromosome spreads, which has been proven to be particularly challenging. Moreover, a lack of scoring guidelines and standardized methods for treating cells with genotoxic agents contribute to significant variability amongst different studies. Here, we report a simple and effective method for obtaining well-spread chromosomes from mammalian cells for the analysis of chromosomal aberrations. In this method, cells are (1) arrested in metaphase (when chromosome morphology is clearest), (2) swollen in hypotonic solution, (3) fixed before being dropped onto microscope slides, and (4) stained with DNA dyes to visualize the chromosomes. Metaphase chromosomes are then analyzed using high-resolution microscopy. We also provide examples, representative images, and useful guidelines to facilitate the scoring of the different chromosomal aberrations. This method can be used for the diagnosis of genetic diseases, as well as for cancer studies, by identifying chromosomal defects and providing insight into the cellular processes that influence chromosome integrity.</p>","PeriodicalId":8938,"journal":{"name":"Bio-protocol","volume":"13 16","pages":"e4739"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-08-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10450737/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"10109817","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Bio-protocolPub Date : 2023-08-20DOI: 10.21769/BioProtoc.4745
Wei Xiao, Rami A Shahror, Carol A Morris, Ruth B Caldwell, Abdelrahman Y Fouda
{"title":"Multi-color Flow Cytometry Protocol to Characterize Myeloid Cells in Mouse Retina Research.","authors":"Wei Xiao, Rami A Shahror, Carol A Morris, Ruth B Caldwell, Abdelrahman Y Fouda","doi":"10.21769/BioProtoc.4745","DOIUrl":"10.21769/BioProtoc.4745","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Myeloid cells, specifically microglia and macrophages, are activated in retinal diseases and can improve or worsen retinopathy outcomes based on their inflammatory phenotype. However, assessing the myeloid cell response after retinal injury in mice remains challenging due to the small tissue size and the challenges of distinguishing microglia from infiltrating macrophages. In this protocol paper, we describe a flow cytometry-based protocol to assess retinal microglia/macrophage and their inflammatory phenotype after injury. The protocol is amenable to the incorporation of other markers of interest to other researchers. Key features This protocol describes a flow cytometry-based method to analyze the myeloid cell response in retinopathy mouse models. The protocol can distinguish between microglia- and monocyte-derived macrophages. It can be modified to incorporate markers of interest. We show representative results from three different retinopathy models, namely ischemia-reperfusion injury, endotoxin-induced uveitis, and oxygen-induced retinopathy.</p>","PeriodicalId":8938,"journal":{"name":"Bio-protocol","volume":"13 16","pages":"e4745"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-08-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://ftp.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pub/pmc/oa_pdf/50/b9/BioProtoc-13-16-4745.PMC10450788.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"10109818","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Bio-protocolPub Date : 2023-08-20DOI: 10.21769/BioProtoc.4743
Yen-Ning Chen, Cheng-Hsun Ho
{"title":"Fluorescent Biosensor Imaging of Nitrate in <i>Arabidopsis thaliana</i>.","authors":"Yen-Ning Chen, Cheng-Hsun Ho","doi":"10.21769/BioProtoc.4743","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21769/BioProtoc.4743","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Nitrate (NO<sub>3</sub><sup>-</sup>) is an essential element and nutrient for plants and animals. Despite extensive studies on the regulation of nitrate uptake and downstream responses in various cells, our knowledge of the distribution of nitrogen forms in different root cell types and their cellular compartments is still limited. Previous physiological models have relied on in vitro biochemistry and metabolite level analysis, which limits the ability to differentiate between cell types and compartments. Here, to address this, we report a nuclear-localized, genetically encoded fluorescent biosensor, which we named nlsNitraMeter3.0, for the quantitative visualization of nitrate concentration and distribution at the cellular level in <i>Arabidopsis thaliana</i>. This biosensor was specifically designed for nitrate measurements, not nitrite. Through genetic engineering to create and select sensors using yeast, <i>Xenopus</i> oocyte, and <i>Arabidopsis</i> expression systems, we developed a reversible and highly specific nitrate sensor. This method, combined with fluorescence imaging systems such as confocal microscopy, allows for the understanding and monitoring of nitrate transporter activity in plant root cells in a minimally invasive manner. Furthermore, this approach enables the functional analysis of nitrate transporters and the measurement of nitrate distribution in plants, providing a valuable tool for plant biology research. In summary, we provide a protocol for sensor development and a biosensor that can be used to monitor nitrate levels in plants. Key features This protocol builds upon the concept of FRET biosensors for in vivo visualization of spatiotemporal nitrate levels at a cellular resolution. Nitrate levels can be quantified utilizing the biosensor in conjunction with either a plate reader or a fluorescence microscope.</p>","PeriodicalId":8938,"journal":{"name":"Bio-protocol","volume":"13 16","pages":"e4743"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-08-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10450734/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"10109819","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}