Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg

5 ARTICLES PUBLISHED IN JoVE

Medicine

Coculture System with an Organotypic Brain Slice and 3D Spheroid of Carcinoma Cells

Han-Ning Chuang¹, Raphaela Lohaus¹, Uwe-Karsten Hanisch², Claudia Binder¹, Faramarz Dehghani^*3, Tobias Pukrop^*1

¹Department of Hematology and Oncology, University of Göttingen, ²Institute of Neuropathology, University of Göttingen, ³Institute of Anatomy and Cellbiology, University of Halle

The organotypic brain slice coculture with carcinoma cells enables visualizing morphological changes by fluorescence as well as bright field (video) microscopy during the process of carcinoma cell invasion of brain tissue. This model system also allows for cell exchange and replenishment approaches and offers a wide variety of manipulations and analyses.

Neuroscience

Organotypic Hippocampal Slice Cultures As a Model to Study Neuroprotection and Invasiveness of Tumor Cells

Urszula Grabiec^*1, Tim Hohmann^*1, Niels Hammer², Faramarz Dehghani¹

¹Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, ²Department of Anatomy, University of Otago

Organotypic hippocampal slice cultures (OHSC) represent an in vitro model that simulates the in vivo situation very well. Here we describe a vibratome-based improved slicing protocol to obtain high quality slices for use in assessing the neuroprotective potential of novel substances or the biological behavior of tumor cells.

Bioengineering

Metabolic Glycoengineering of Sialic Acid Using N-acyl-modified Mannosamines

Paul R. Wratil^1,2, Rüdiger Horstkorte³

¹Max von Pettenkofer-Institut & Genzentrum, Virologie, Nationales Referenzzentrum für Retroviren, Medizinische Fakultät, LMU München, ²Institut für Laboratoriumsmedizin, klinische Chemie und Pathobiochemie, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, ³Institut für Physiologische Chemie, Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg

Sialic acid is a typical monosaccharide-unit found in glycoconjugates. It is involved in a plethora of molecular and cellular interactions. Here we present a method to modify cell surface sialic acid expression using metabolic glycoengineering with N-acetylmannosamine derivatives.

JoVE Journal

Combining Chemical Cross-linking and Mass Spectrometry of Intact Protein Complexes to Study the Architecture of Multi-subunit Protein Assemblies

Caroline Haupt^*1, Tommy Hofmann^*1, Sabine Wittig^*1, Susann Kostmann¹, Argyris Politis², Carla Schmidt¹

¹Interdisciplinary research center HALOmem, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, ²Department of Chemistry, Kings College London

The architecture of protein complexes is essential for their function. Combining various mass spectrometric techniques proved powerful to study their assembly. We provide protocols for chemical cross-linking and native mass spectrometry and show how these complementary techniques help to elucidate the architecture of multi-subunit protein assemblies.

Immunology and Infection

Analyzing the Permeability of the Blood-Brain Barrier by Microbial Traversal through Microvascular Endothelial Cells

Veronika Weber¹, Kaya Bork¹, Rüdiger Horstkorte¹, Heidi Olzscha¹

¹Institute of Physiological Chemistry, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg

The human blood-brain barrier selectively prevents penetration of hydrophilic molecules and pathogens into the brain. Several pathologies, including meningitis and postoperative delirium, are associated with an increased permeability of the blood-brain barrier. Here, we describe an endothelial cell culture model to test the barrier permeability by microbial traversal.