Name: adenoviral gene therapy for diabetic keratopathy: effects on wound healing and stem cell marker expression in human organ-cultured corneas and limbal epithelial cells
Uploaded: 2016-04-07T15:00:00
Description: Watch this Scientific Journal Video about Adenoviral Gene Therapy for Diabetic Keratopathy: Effects on Wound Healing and Stem Cell Marker Expression in Human Organ-cultured Corneas and Limbal Epitheli

We gratefully acknowledge financial support by NIH/NEI R01 EY13431 (AVL), CTSI grant UL 1RR033176 (AVL), and grants from the Regenerative Medicine Institute, Cedars-Cedars Medical Center.

National Disease Research Interchange (NDRI, Philadelphia, PA) supplied consented post-mortem healthy and diabetic human eyes and corneas. NDRI&#39;s human tissue collection protocol is approved by the managerial committee and subject to National Institutes of Health oversight. This research has been conducted under the approved Cedars-Sinai Medical Center Institutional Review Board (IRB) exempt protocol EX-1055. Collaborating corneal surgeons, Drs. E. Maguen and Y. Rabinowitz, supplied discard corneoscleral rims for isolation of stem cell-e...

<ol>
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The cornea appears to be an ideal tissue for gene therapy due to its surface location where the gene delivery, as well as the evaluation of efficacy and side effects, are easy. However, a clinical translation of this powerful approach is still slow due to scarce information on genetic causes of the corneal diseases and the gene therapy targets24. Diabetic complications including corneal alterations may be largely epigenetic in nature, which translates into metabolic memory9. For this reason, the dia...

The diabetic corneal disease mainly results in degenerative epithelial (keratopathy) and nerve (neuropathy) changes. It is often manifested by the abnormalities of epithelial wound healing and corneal nerve reduction1-4. An estimated 60-70% diabetics have various corneal problems1,3. Our studies have identified several marker proteins with altered expression in human diabetic corneas including the downregulation of c-met proto-oncogene (hepatocyte growth factor receptor) and the upregulation of matrix metalloproteinase-10 (MMP-10) and cathepsin F5, 6. We have also documented significantly decreased expression of several putative epithelial stem cell markers in the human diabetic corneas.
In the previous studies we have developed an adenoviral-based gene therapy to normalize the levels of diabetes-altered markers using human diabetic corneal organ culture system, which shows slow wound healing, diabetic marker changes, and stem cell marker expression reduction similar to the ex vivo corneas7,8. This persistence of changes appears to be due to the existence of epigenetic metabolic memory9. This culture system was further used for gene therapy. The targets for this therapy were chosen from markers with either reduced expression in diabetic corneas (c-met proto-oncogene), or increased expression (MMP-10 and cathepsin F).
The adenoviral (AV) therapy was used in the whole organ-cultured corneas or the corneoscleral peripheral limbal compartment only. This compartment harbors epithelial stem cells that renew the corneal epithelium and actively participate in the wound healing4,10-15. Here, protocols are provided for normal and diabetic human corneal organ culture, epithelial wound healing, isolation and characterization of stem cell-enriched limbal cell cultures, and adenoviral cell and corneal transduction. Our results show the feasibility of this therapy for normalizing marker expression and wound healing in diabetic corneas for possible future transplantation. They also suggest that the combination therapy is the most efficacious way to restore normal marker pattern and epithelial healing in the diabetic cornea16-18.

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		<tr height="20">
			<td height="20" style="height:20px;width:384px;">minimum essential medium</td>
			<td style="width:277px;">Thermo Fisher Scientific</td>
			<td style="width:169px;">11095-080</td>
			<td style="width:281px;"></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="20">
			<td height="20" style="height:20px;">Optisol-GS&#160;</td>
			<td>Bausch &#38; Lomb</td>
			<td>50006-OPT</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="20">
			<td height="20" style="height:20px;">ABAM antibiotic-antimycotic mixture</td>
			<td>Thermo Fisher Scientific</td>
			<td>15240062</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="20">
			<td height="20" style="height:20px;">calf skin collagen&#160;</td>
			<td>Sigma-Aldrich&#160;</td>
			<td>C9791</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="20">
			<td height="20" style="height:20px;">agar, tissue culture grade</td>
			<td>Sigma-Aldrich&#160;</td>
			<td>A1296</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="20">
			<td height="20" style="height:20px;">n-heptanol</td>
			<td>Sigma-Aldrich&#160;</td>
			<td>72954-5ML-F</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="20">
			<td height="20" style="height:20px;">O.C.T. compound&#160;</td>
			<td>VWR International</td>
			<td>25608-930</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="20">
			<td height="20" style="height:20px;">Dispase II&#160;</td>
			<td>Roche Applied Science</td>
			<td>4942078001</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="20">
			<td height="20" style="height:20px;">keratinocyte serum-free medium (KSFM)&#160;</td>
			<td>Thermo Fisher Scientific</td>
			<td>17005042</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="20">
			<td height="20" style="height:20px;">EpiLife medium with calcium</td>
			<td>Thermo Fisher Scientific</td>
			<td>MEPI500CA</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="20">
			<td height="20" style="height:20px;">N2 medium supplement, 100x</td>
			<td>Thermo Fisher Scientific</td>
			<td>17502-048</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="20">
			<td height="20" style="height:20px;">B27 medium supplement, 50x</td>
			<td>Thermo Fisher Scientific</td>
			<td>17504-044</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="20">
			<td height="20" style="height:20px;">human keratinocyte growth supplement, 100x</td>
			<td>Thermo Fisher Scientific</td>
			<td>S-001-5</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="20">
			<td height="20" style="height:20px;">trypsin 0.25% - EDTA 0.02% with phenol red</td>
			<td>Thermo Fisher Scientific</td>
			<td>25200056</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="20">
			<td height="20" style="height:20px;">trypsin 0.25% with phenol red</td>
			<td>Thermo Fisher Scientific</td>
			<td>15050065</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="20">
			<td height="20" style="height:20px;">soybean trypsin inhibitor&#160;</td>
			<td>Sigma-Aldrich&#160;</td>
			<td>T6414</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="20">
			<td height="20" style="height:20px;">fetal bovine serum</td>
			<td>Thermo Fisher Scientific</td>
			<td>26140079</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="20">
			<td height="20" style="height:20px;">insulin-transferrin-selenite supplement (ITS)</td>
			<td>Sigma-Aldrich&#160;</td>
			<td>I3146-5ML</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="20">
			<td height="20" style="height:20px;">antibody to keratin 14</td>
			<td>Santa Cruz Biotechnology</td>
			<td>sc-53253</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="20">
			<td height="20" style="height:20px;">antibody to keratin 15</td>
			<td>Santa Cruz Biotechnology</td>
			<td>sc-47697</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="20">
			<td height="20" style="height:20px;">antibody to keratin 17</td>
			<td>Santa Cruz Biotechnology</td>
			<td>SC-58726</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="20">
			<td height="20" style="height:20px;">antibody to &#916;Np63&#945;</td>
			<td>Santa Cruz Biotechnology</td>
			<td>sc-8609</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="20">
			<td height="20" style="height:20px;">antibody to PAX6</td>
			<td>BioLegend</td>
			<td>PRB-278P-100</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="20">
			<td height="20" style="height:20px;">antibody to nidogen-1</td>
			<td>R&#38;D Systems</td>
			<td>MAB2570</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="20">
			<td height="20" style="height:20px;">antibody to integrin &#945;3&#946;1</td>
			<td>EMD Millipore</td>
			<td>MAB1992</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="20">
			<td height="20" style="height:20px;">human fibronectin</td>
			<td>BD Biosciences</td>
			<td>354008</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="20">
			<td height="20" style="height:20px;">human laminin</td>
			<td>Sigma-Aldrich&#160;</td>
			<td>L4445</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="20">
			<td height="20" style="height:20px;">human type IV collagen</td>
			<td>Sigma-Aldrich&#160;</td>
			<td>C6745-1ML</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="20">
			<td height="20" style="height:20px;">adenovirus expressing MMP-10 shRNA</td>
			<td>Capital BioSciences</td>
			<td>custom made</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="20">
			<td height="20" style="height:20px;">adenovirus expressing cathepsin F shRNA</td>
			<td>Capital BioSciences</td>
			<td>custom made</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="20">
			<td height="20" style="height:20px;">adenovirus expressing scrambled shRNA and GFP</td>
			<td>Capital BioSciences</td>
			<td>custom made</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="20">
			<td height="20" style="height:20px;">adenovirus expressing c-met</td>
			<td>OriGene (plasmid)</td>
			<td>SC323278</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="20">
			<td height="20" style="height:20px;">adenovirus expressing GFP</td>
			<td>KeraFAST</td>
			<td>FVQ002</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="20">
			<td height="20" style="height:20px;">sildenafil citrate, 25 mg</td>
			<td>Pfizer</td>
			<td>from pharmacy</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="20">
			<td height="20" style="height:20px;">epidermal growth factor&#160;</td>
			<td>Thermo Fisher Scientific</td>
			<td>PHG0311</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="20">
			<td height="20" style="height:20px;">poly-L-lysine</td>
			<td>Sigma-Aldrich&#160;</td>
			<td>P4707</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="20">
			<td height="20" style="height:20px;">polybrene</td>
			<td>Sigma-Aldrich&#160;</td>
			<td>107689-10G</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="20">
			<td height="20" style="height:20px;">ViraDuctin</td>
			<td>Cell Biolabs</td>
			<td>AD-200</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="20">
			<td height="20" style="height:20px;">ibiBoost</td>
			<td>ibidi, Germany</td>
			<td>50301</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="20">
			<td height="20" style="height:20px;">phosphate buffered saline (PBS)</td>
			<td>Thermo Fisher Scientific</td>
			<td>10010049</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="20">
			<td height="20" style="height:20px;">Corning round end spatula&#160;</td>
			<td>Dow Corning</td>
			<td>3005</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="20">
			<td height="20" style="height:20px;">60-mm petri dishes</td>
			<td>Thermo Fisher Scientific</td>
			<td>174888</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="20">
			<td height="20" style="height:20px;">Nunc Lab-Tek II multiwell chamber slides&#160;</td>
			<td>Sigma-Aldrich</td>
			<td>C6807</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="20">
			<td height="20" style="height:20px;">200 microliter pipet tips</td>
			<td>Bioexpress</td>
			<td>P-1233-200</td>
			<td>other suppliers available</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="20">
			<td height="20" style="height:20px;">inverted microscope&#160;</td>
			<td>Nikon</td>
			<td>Diaphot</td>
			<td>other suppliers/models available</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="26">
			<td height="26" style="height:26px;">humidified CO2 incubator&#160;</td>
			<td>Thermo Fisher Scientific</td>
			<td>370 (Steri-Cycle)</td>
			<td>other suppliers/models available</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="20">
			<td height="20" style="height:20px;">fluorescent microscope</td>
			<td>Olympus, Japan</td>
			<td>BX-40</td>
			<td>other suppliers/models available</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="20">
			<td height="20" style="height:20px;">dissecting stereo microscope</td>
			<td>Leica, Germany</td>
			<td>S4 E</td>
			<td>other suppliers/models available</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>

adenoviral gene therapy for diabetic keratopathy: effects on wound healing and stem cell marker expression in human organ-cultured corneas and limbal epithelial cells

The goal of this protocol is to describe molecular alterations in human diabetic corneas and demonstrate how they can be alleviated by adenoviral gene therapy in organ-cultured corneas. The diabetic corneal disease is a complication of diabetes with frequent abnormalities of corneal nerves and epithelial wound healing. We have also documented significantly altered expression of several putative epithelial stem cell markers in human diabetic corneas. To alleviate these changes, adenoviral gene therapy was successfully implemented using the upregulation of c-met proto-oncogene expression and/or the downregulation of proteinases matrix metalloproteinase-10 (MMP-10) and cathepsin F. This therapy accelerated wound healing in diabetic corneas even when only the limbal stem cell compartment was transduced. The best results were obtained with combined treatment. For possible patient transplantation of normalized stem cells, an example is also presented of the optimization of gene transduction in stem cell-enriched cultures using polycationic enhancers. This approach may be useful not only for the selected genes but also for the other mediators of corneal epithelial wound healing and stem cell function.

We have shown previously that in the corneal organ cultures, the differences in the expression of diabetic markers (e.g., basement membrane proteins and integrin &#945;3&#946;1) and wound healing between the normal and diabetic corneas are preserved. This culture system was subjected to the gene therapy aimed at normalizing the levels of diabetes-altered markers, c-met, MMP-10, and cathepsin F.
When the whole corneal ep...

Watch this Scientific Journal Video about Adenoviral Gene Therapy for Diabetic Keratopathy: Effects on Wound Healing and Stem Cell Marker Expression in Human Organ-cultured Corneas and Limbal Epitheli

Adenoviral Gene Therapy for Diabetic Keratopathy: Effects on Wound Healing and Stem Cell Marker Expression in Human Organ-cultured Corneas and Limbal Epithelial Cells

An example of adenoviral gene therapy in the human diabetic organ-cultured corneas is presented towards the normalization of delayed wound healing and markedly reduced epithelial stem cell marker expression in these corneas. It also describes the optimization of this process in stem cell-enriched limbal epithelial cultures.

The goal of this protocol is to describe molecular alterations in human diabetic corneas and demonstrate how they can be alleviated by adenoviral gene ...

The overall goal of this experimental protocol is to describe molecular alterations in human diabetic corneas and demonstrate how they can be alleviated by adenoviral gene therapy, in organ-cultured corneas. This method can help answer key questions in the diabetic corneal field, such as what molecular alterations underline delayed diabetic epithelial wound healing, and abnormal expression of epithelial SEM SEM molecules. The main advantage of this technique is that it allows testing of gene therapy approaches targeting various mediators of corneal epithelial wound healing and stem cell function in organ-culture corneas.This implications of this technique extend toward therapy of other corneal diseases related to stem cell dysfunction, because we have demonstrated the validity of the method for normalizing ultradiabetic corneal stem cells. Place the corneas epithelial-side down in sterile 60-millimeter dishes, and fill the concavity with 0.5 milliliters of agar-collagen mixture. The mixture solidifies on the corneas within two minutes.Once solidified, place the corneas agar-side down in sterile 60-millimeter dishes containing enough full supplemented medium to reach the level of the limbus for air-liquid interface culture. Then place the dishes containing the corneas into a 5 percent carbon dioxide incubator humidified with a water pan at 35 degrees Celsius. To perform an epithelial debridement of the central cornea, first soak a 5-millimeter filter paper disc in N-heptanol, and place on the central corneal anterior surface for 75 seconds.Remove the filter, and wash the corneas in full medium. After debridement, the epithelial cells usually die and slough off, leaving behind microscopically intact basement membrane seen on the left. Add 100 microliters of medium to the epithelium daily to moisten the corneas.Monitor the corneal healing microscopically. Take photographs at 4X and 10X every day, until the epithelial defect is completely healed. During the healing process, black spider-like cells are observed at the top focal plane.These cells are apoptotic stromal keratocytes that died after epithelial removal. Healing is complete when these dead cells are overgrown by the healing epithelium and are no longer visible. Prepare transduction medium by supplementing full medium with 75 micrograms per milliliter sildenafil citrate.Add adenovirus expressing the c-met gene, or vector, at 0.8 to 1.25 times 10 to the 8th platforming units per cornea. Transfer the corneas to a 24-well plate. Add the appropriate volume of virus-containing media, and ensure that the corneas are under the medium surface.Incubate for 48 hours at 37 degrees Celsius. To transduce only the limbal cells, incubate the corneas with virus at the air-liquid interface with medium at the level of the limbus. As sildenafil has a short half life in aqueous solutions, four hours later, replenish, by adding sildenafil citrate to the medium.Following the incubation, use a round-end sterile spatula to transfer corneas to new dishes containing medium without adenovirus, and culture, keeping the medium level at the limbus. GFP-containing transduced cells are seen at the limbus under fluorescent light. During culture, routinely moisten the corneas by adding 100 microliters of medium on top of the cornea.After an additional four to eight days of incubation, process the adenovirus-treated corneas for various analyses. Or test for epithelial wound healing. If whole corneas or globes are used, first isolate the limbal areas.To do this, place the cornea on a sterile plastic dish with the epithelial side up, and use a 9-millimeter trephine to remove the central area and discard. Then excise the limbal zone using a 13-millimeter trephine or surgical scissors, and discard the outer conjunctival part. Prepare 1.5 milliliters of keratinocyte theram-free medium containing 2.4 units per milliliter of dispace-two per corneal schleral rim.Immerse the corneal schleral rims in this solution, and incubate at 37 degrees Celsius for two hours. Then, under a dissecting stereo microscope, use forceps to gently ease the limbal epithelial cell sheet off the rim. Dissociate the cells in 1 milliliter of 0.25 percent trypsin, 0.02 percent EDTA solution for 30 minutes at room temperature.After dissociation, wash the cells in 10 milliliters of medium, and pellet them at 300 g in a tabletop centrifuge for five minutes at room temperature. Re-suspend the cells in supplemented culture medium, and seat cells in KSFM medium at 10, 000 cells per milliliter into coded 60 millimeter dishes. Culture the cells in a humidified carbon dioxide incubator at 37 degree Celsius until they form fully confluent monolayers.This may take one to two weeks. Passage the confluent cells according to standard techniques and plate the cells onto a 24-well plate at 2 times 10 to the 4th cells per milliliter. Prepare transduction medium containing 2 nanograms per milliliter of EGF, and a polycation enhancer to facilitate adenovirus binding to the cell surface.Add the required volume of adenovirus, expressing a specific gene, or shRNA inhibitor, or scrambled shRNA as control, to transduce cells at a multiplicity of infection of 1 to 300 plaque-forming units per cell. Add the virus-containing media to the cells, and incubate in the humidified incubator for 24 hours at 37 degrees Celsius. After 24 hours, replace the adenovirus-containing media with fresh media without adenovirus.Return to the incubator for four days. After four days, evaluate the GFP expression level using an inverted fluorescent microscope. Then make scratch wounds in the monolayer, by scratching the cells in the straight linear motion with a 200-microliter pipette tip.After wounding, change the medium to remove the detached cells. Photograph the wounds every day with a digital camera attached to an inverted microscope at 4X magnification. Record the time when the wound edges come into contact along the entire wound, and the healing is complete.This series of images shows healing of 8.5-millimeter epithelial wounds in a pair of diabetic corneas. The arrows show the wound edge, and the asterisk, the non-healed part. For a vector-transduced cornea, healing is complete in eight days, whereas for the adenovirus c-met-transduced cornea, healing is complete in five days.As seen here, c-met gene transduction leads to a significant decrease of corneal epithelial wound healing time. Moreover, combined gene therapy with adenovirus harboring the c-met gene and shRNAs to MMP10 and cathepsin-F genes completely normalizes epithelial wound healing time. Significance was established by paired student's t-test in comparison with respective vector treatments.The bars represent the standard error of the mean. The following images show immunostaining of diabetic corneal sections for various markers after limbal gene therapy. c-met expression and combination treatments result in markedly increase limbal staining for the diabetic markers integrin alpha-3-beta-1 and nitogen-1, and the putative stem cell markers keratin 15 and Delta-Np-63-alpha.The level of GFP expression in transduced limbal epithelial cells depends on the multiplicity of infection of adenovirus GFP. Here, cells were transduced with 30 plaque-forming units per cell for three days. This is the result with 120 PFU per cell, and finally with 300 PFU per cell at three days of transduction.It is worth noting that limbal cell migration is adversely affected by increasing concentration of adenovirus, as revealed by the scratch wound test. For this reason, transduction dose must be optimized to avoid virus toxicity. This image shows live untransduced cells.Here, cells are transduced with 20 PFU per cell, 80 PFU per cell, and finally 120 PFU per cell. While attempting this procedure, it's important to remember to keep corneas sterile to optimize the viral tighters, to moisten the corneal surface after gene transduction at least once a day, and to document the healing process daily. After watching this video, you should have a good understanding of how to prepare corneal organ cultures, corneal stem cell cultures, make wounds, and apply viral gene therapy to accelerate wound healing in diseased corneal tissue in an in-vitro setting.

adenoviral-gene-therapy-for-diabetic-keratopathy-effects-on-wound

Research

JoVE Journal

Developmental Biology

Generation of Murine Cardiac Pacemaker Cell Aggregates Based on ES-Cell-Programming in Combination with Myh6-Promoter-Selection

Treatment of the &#8220;sick sinus syndrome&#8221; is based on artificial pacemakers. These bear hazards such as battery failure and infections. Moreover, they lack hormone responsiveness and the overall procedure is cost-intensive. &#8220;Biological pacemakers&#8221; generated from PSCs may become an alternative, yet the typical content of pacemaker cells in Embryoid Bodies (EBs) is extremely low. The described protocol combines &#8220;forward programming&#8221; of murine PSCs via the sinus node inducer TBX3 with Myh6-promoter based antibiotic selection. This yields cardiomyocyte aggregates consistent of &#62;80% physiologically functional pacemaker cells. These &#8220;induced-sinoatrial-bodies&#8221; (&#8220;iSABs&#8221;) are spontaneously contracting at yet unreached frequencies (400-500 bpm) corresponding to nodal cells isolated from mouse hearts and are able to pace murine myocardium ex vivo. Using the described protocol highly pure sinus nodal single cells can be generated which e.g. can be used for in vitro drug testing. Furthermore, the iSABs generated according to this protocol may become a crucial step towards heart tissue engineering.

This protocol describes how to produce functional sinus nodal tissue from murine pluripotent stem cells (PSC). T-Box3 (TBX3) overexpression plus cardiac Myosin-heavy-chain (Myh6) promoter antibiotic selection leads to highly pure pacemaker cell aggregates. These &#8220;Induced-sinoatrial-bodies&#8221; (&#8220;iSABs&#8221;) contain over 80% pacemaker cells, show highly increased beating rates and are able to pace myocardium ex vivo.

Treatment of the &#8220;sick sinus syndrome&#8221; is based on artificial pacemakers. These bear hazards such as battery failure and infections. Moreover, ...

Culturing Human Pluripotent and Neural Stem Cells in an Enclosed Cell Culture System for Basic and Preclinical Research

This paper describes how to use a custom manufactured, commercially available enclosed cell culture system for basic and preclinical research. Biosafety cabinets (BSCs) and incubators have long been the standard for culturing and expanding cell lines for basic and preclinical research. However, as the focus of many stem cell laboratories shifts from basic research to clinical translation, additional requirements are needed of the cell culturing system. All processes must be well documented and have exceptional requirements for sterility and reproducibility. In traditional incubators, gas concentrations and temperatures widely fluctuate anytime the cells are removed for feeding, passaging, or other manipulations. Such interruptions contribute to an environment that is not the standard for cGMP and GLP guidelines. These interruptions must be minimized especially when cells are utilized for therapeutic purposes. The motivation to move from the standard BSC and incubator system to a closed system is that such interruptions can be made negligible. Closed systems provide a work space to feed and manipulate cell cultures and maintain them in a controlled environment where temperature and gas concentrations are consistent. This way, pluripotent and multipotent stem cells can be maintained at optimum health from the moment of their derivation all the way to their eventual use in therapy.

Here is a protocol to grow pluripotent stem cells (PSC) and neural stem cells (NSC) in an enclosed cell culture system that permits maximum sterility and reproducibility, replacing the traditional biosafety cabinet and incubator. This equipment meets clinical good manufacturing practice (cGMP) and clinical good lab practice (cGLP) guidelines.

This paper describes how to use a custom manufactured, commercially available enclosed cell culture system for basic and preclinical research. Biosafety ...

A Device for Performing Cell Migration/Wound Healing in a 96-Well Plate

The cell migration/wounding assay is a commonly used method to study cell migration and other biological processes, such as angiogenesis and tumor metastasis. In this assay, cells are grown to form a confluent monolayer and a mechanical wound is created by scratching with a device. Then the migration rate of the cells towards the denuded area can be monitored by imaging. Our 8-channel mechanical wounder is designed to tackle most of the problems associated with the cell migration assay. Firstly, our wounder can be easily sterilized by autoclaving or with common disinfectants. Secondly, the individual adjustable pins allow even contact with the cell culture plate so that sharp and reproducible wounds can be created. Thirdly, the guiding bars on both sides of the wounder ensure consistent wounding position in each well. The use of disposable plastic pipette tips for wounding can further provide better handling of the wounder as well as to minimize cross-contamination. In conclusion, our cell wounder can provide researchers with a user friendly and reproducible device for performing the cell migration assay using the standard 96-well culture plate.

Here, we present a protocol to perform a semi-high throughput cell migration assay on a 96-well cell culture plate. This protocol is a fast, simple and economical method to create consistent scratch wounds on a cell monolayer.

The cell migration/wounding assay is a commonly used method to study cell migration and other biological processes, such as angiogenesis and tumor ...

Rapid, Directed Differentiation of Retinal Pigment Epithelial Cells from Human Embryonic or Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells

We describe a robust method to direct the differentiation of pluripotent stem cells into retinal pigment epithelial cells (RPE). The purpose of providing a detailed and thorough protocol is to clearly demonstrate each step and to make this readily available to researchers in the field. This protocol results in a homogenous layer of RPE with minimal or no manual dissection needed. The method presented here has been shown to be effective for induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) and human embryonic stem cells. Additionally, we describe methods for cryopreservation of intermediate cell banks that allow long-term storage. RPE generated using this protocol might be useful for iPSC disease-in-a-dish modeling or clinical application.

This protocol describes how to produce retinal pigment epithelial cells (RPE) from pluripotent stem cells. The method uses a combination of growth factors and small molecules to direct the differentiation of stem cells into immature RPE in fourteen days and mature, functional RPE after three months.

We describe a robust method to direct the differentiation of pluripotent stem cells into retinal pigment epithelial cells (RPE). The purpose of providing ...

Single-cell Photoconversion in Living Intact Zebrafish

Animal and plant tissue is composed of distinct populations of cells. These cells interact over time to build and maintain the tissue and can cause disease when disrupted. Scientists have developed clever techniques to investigate characteristics and natural dynamics of these cells within intact tissue by expressing fluorescent proteins in subsets of cells. However, at times, experiments require more selected visualization of cells within the tissue, sometimes at the single-cell or population-of-cells manner. To achieve this and visualize single cells within a population of cells, scientists have utilized single-cell photoconversion of fluorescent proteins. To demonstrate this technique, we show here how to direct UV light to an Eos-expressing cell of interest in an intact, living zebrafish. We then image those photoconverted Eos+ cells 24 h later to determine how they changed in the tissue. We describe two techniques: single cell photoconversion and photoconversions of populations of cell. These techniques can be used to visualize cell-cell interactions, cell-fate and differentiation, and cell migrations, making it a technique that is applicable in numerous biological questions.

Here, we present a protocol to show how cell photoconversion is achieved through UV exposure to specific areas expressing the fluorescent protein, Eos, in living animals.

Animal and plant tissue is composed of distinct populations of cells. These cells interact over time to build and maintain the tissue and can cause ...

Generation of Scaffold-free, Three-dimensional Insulin Expressing Pancreatoids from Mouse Pancreatic Progenitors In Vitro

The pancreas is a complex organ composed of many different cell types that work together to regulate blood glucose homeostasis and digestion. These cell types include enzyme-secreting acinar cells, an arborized ductal system responsible for the transportation of enzymes to the gut, and hormone-producing endocrine cells. 
Endocrine beta-cells are the sole cell type in the body that produce insulin to lower blood glucose levels. Diabetes, a disease characterized by a loss or the dysfunction of beta-cells, is reaching epidemic proportions. Thus, it is essential to establish protocols to investigate beta-cell development that can be used for screening purposes to derive the drug and cell-based therapeutics. While the experimental investigation of mouse development is essential, in vivo studies are laborious and time-consuming. Cultured cells provide a more convenient platform for screening; however, they are unable to maintain the cellular diversity, architectural organization, and cellular interactions found in vivo. Thus, it is essential to develop new tools to investigate pancreatic organogenesis and physiology.
Pancreatic epithelial cells develop in the close association with mesenchyme from the onset of organogenesis as cells organize and differentiate into the complex, physiologically competent adult organ. The pancreatic mesenchyme provides important signals for the endocrine development, many of which are not well understood yet, thus difficult to recapitulate during the in vitro culture. Here, we describe a protocol to culture three-dimensional, cellular complex mouse organoids that retain mesenchyme, termed pancreatoids. The e10.5 murine pancreatic bud is dissected, dissociated, and cultured in a scaffold-free environment. These floating cells self-assemble with mesenchyme enveloping the developing pancreatoid and a robust number of endocrine beta-cells developing along with the acinar and the duct cells. This system can be used to study the cell fate determination, structural organization, and morphogenesis, cell-cell interactions during organogenesis, or for the drug, small molecule, or genetic screening.

Generation of Scaffold-free, Three-dimensional Insulin Expressing Pancreatoids from Mouse Pancreatic Progenitors In Vitro

Here, we present a protocol to generate insulin expressing 3D murine pancreatoids from free-floating e10.5 dissociated pancreatic progenitors and the associated mesenchyme.

The pancreas is a complex organ composed of many different cell types that work together to regulate blood glucose homeostasis and digestion. These cell ...

Efficient and Scalable Directed Differentiation of Clinically Compatible Corneal Limbal Epithelial Stem Cells from Human Pluripotent Stem Cells

Corneal limbal epithelial stem cells (LESCs) are responsible for continuously renewing the corneal epithelium, and thus maintaining corneal homeostasis and visual clarity. Human pluripotent stem cell (hPSC)-derived LESCs provide a promising cell source for corneal cell replacement therapy. Undefined, xenogeneic culture and differentiation conditions cause variation in research results and impede the clinical translation of hPSC-derived therapeutics. This protocol provides a reproducible and efficient method for hPSC-LESC differentiation under xeno- and feeder cell-free conditions. Firstly, monolayer culture of undifferentiated hPSC on recombinant laminin-521 (LN-521) and defined hPSC medium serves as a foundation for robust production of high-quality starting material for differentiations. Secondly, a rapid and simple hPSC-LESC differentiation method yields LESC populations in only 24 days. This method includes a four-day surface ectodermal induction in suspension with small molecules, followed by adherent culture phase on LN-521/collagen IV combination matrix in defined corneal epithelial differentiation medium. Cryostoring and extended differentiation further purifies the cell population and enables banking of the cells in large quantities for cell therapy products. The resulting high-quality hPSC-LESCs provide a potential novel treatment strategy for corneal surface reconstruction to treat limbal stem cell deficiency (LSCD).

This protocol introduces a simple two-step method for differentiating corneal limbal epithelial stem cells from human pluripotent stem cells under xeno- and feeder cell-free culture conditions. The cell culture methods presented here enable cost-efficient, large-scale production of clinical quality cells applicable to corneal cell therapy use.

Corneal limbal epithelial stem cells (LESCs) are responsible for continuously renewing the corneal epithelium, and thus maintaining corneal homeostasis ...

In Vitro Generation of Somite Derivatives from Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells

In response to signals such as WNTs, bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs), and sonic hedgehog (SHH) secreted from surrounding tissues, somites (SMs) give rise to multiple cell types, including the myotome (MYO), sclerotome (SCL), dermatome (D), and syndetome (SYN), which in turn develop into skeletal muscle, axial skeleton, dorsal dermis, and axial tendon/ligament, respectively. Therefore, the generation of SMs and their derivatives from human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) is critical to obtain pluripotent stem cells (PSCs) for application in regenerative medicine and for disease research in the field of orthopedic surgery. Although the induction protocols for MYO and SCL from PSCs have been previously reported by several researchers, no study has yet demonstrated the induction of SYN and D from iPSCs. Therefore, efficient induction of fully competent SMs remains a major challenge. Here, we recapitulate human SM patterning with human iPSCs in vitro by mimicking the signaling environment during chick/mouse SM development, and report on methods of systematic induction of SM derivatives (MYO, SCL, D, and SYN) from human iPSCs under chemically defined conditions through the presomitic mesoderm (PSM) and SM states. Knowledge regarding chick/mouse&#160;SM development was successfully applied to the induction of SMs with human iPSCs. This method could be a novel tool for studying human somitogenesis and patterning without the use of embryos and for cell-based therapy and disease modeling.

We present here a protocol for the differentiation of human induced pluripotent stem cells into each somite derivative (myotome, sclerotome, dermatome, and syndetome) in chemically defined conditions, which has applications in future disease modeling and cell-based therapies in orthopedic surgery.

In response to signals such as WNTs, bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs), and sonic hedgehog (SHH) secreted from surrounding tissues, somites (SMs) give ...

Hemogenic Reprogramming of Human Fibroblasts by Enforced Expression of Transcription Factors

The cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying specification of human hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) remain elusive. Strategies to recapitulate human HSC emergence in vitro are required to overcome limitations in studying this complex developmental process. Here, we describe a protocol to generate hematopoietic stem and progenitor-like cells from human dermal fibroblasts employing a direct cell reprogramming approach. These cells transit through a hemogenic intermediate cell-type, resembling the endothelial-to-hematopoietic transition (EHT) characteristic of HSC specification. Fibroblasts were reprogrammed to hemogenic cells via transduction with GATA2, GFI1B and FOS transcription factors. This combination of three factors induced morphological changes, expression of hemogenic and hematopoietic markers and dynamic EHT transcriptional programs. Reprogrammed cells generate hematopoietic progeny and repopulate immunodeficient mice for three months. This protocol can be adapted towards the mechanistic dissection of the human EHT process as exemplified here by defining GATA2 targets during the early phases of reprogramming. Thus, human hemogenic reprogramming provides a simple and tractable approach to identify novel markers and regulators of human HSC emergence. In the future, faithful induction of hemogenic fate in fibroblasts may lead to the generation of patient-specific HSCs for transplantation.

This protocol demonstrates the induction of a hemogenic program in human dermal fibroblasts by enforced expression of the transcription factors GATA2, GFI1B and FOS to generate hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells.

The cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying specification of human hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) remain elusive. Strategies to recapitulate human ...

Preparation of Small RNA Libraries for Sequencing from Early Mouse Embryos

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are important for the complex regulation of cell fate decisions and developmental timing. In vivo studies of the contribution of miRNAs during early development are technically challenging due to the limiting cell number. Moreover, many approaches require a miRNA of interest to be defined in assays such as northern blotting, microarray, and qPCR. Therefore, the expression of many miRNAs and their isoforms have not been studied during early development. Here, we demonstrate a protocol for small RNA sequencing of sorted cells from early mouse embryos to enable relatively unbiased profiling of miRNAs in early populations of neural crest cells. We overcome the challenges of low cell input and size selection during library preparation using amplification and gel-based purification. We identify embryonic age as a variable accounting for variation between replicates and stage-matched mouse embryos must be used to accurately profile miRNAs in biological replicates. Our results suggest that this method can be broadly applied to profile the expression of miRNAs from other lineages of cells. In summary, this protocol can be used to study how miRNAs regulate developmental programs in different cell lineages of the early mouse embryo.

We describe a technique for profiling microRNAs in early mouse embryos. This protocol overcomes the challenge of low cell input and small RNA enrichment. This assay can be used to analyze changes in miRNA expression over time in different cell lineages of the early mouse embryo.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are important for the complex regulation of cell fate decisions and developmental timing. In vivo studies of the contribution of miRNAs ...