Name: in vitro pancreas organogenesis from dispersed mouse embryonic progenitors
Uploaded: 2014-07-19T15:00:00
Description: Watch this Scientific Journal Video about In Vitro Pancreas Organogenesis from Dispersed Mouse Embryonic Progenitors at JoVE.com

This work was funded sequentially by a NCCR Frontiers in Genetics pilot award, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation Grant 41-2009-775 and Grant 12-126875 from Det Frie Forskningsr&#229;d/Sundhed og Sygdom. The authors thank the Spagnoli lab for hosting the video shooting.

This protocol aims to grow pancreatic organoids derived from murine E10.5 dissociated epithelial pancreatic cells.
The protocol requires ethical approval for animal experimentation.
1. Dissection of Dorsal Pancreatic Bud from E10.5 Mouse Embryos
<ol>
	<li>Sacrifice timed-pregnant mice at embryonic day (E) 10.5, open the abdomen with a pair of scissors, remove the two uterine horns and place them in a 10 cm Petri dish filled with cold phosphate buffer saline (PBS) ...

<ol>
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R., et al. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=The+adult+mouse+and+human+pancreas+contain+rare+multipotent+stem+cells+that+express+insulin.">The adult mouse and human pancreas contain rare multipotent stem cells that express insulin.</a> Cell Stem Cell. 8, 281-293 (2011).</li><li>Seaberg, R. 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Large-scale production of functional beta cells in vitro is still ineffective 1. In this challenging context, developmental biology studies may help deciphering the exact signals that are required for the differentiation of functional beta cells. This protocol allows for the maintenance, expansion and differentiation of embryonic pancreatic progenitors in vitro. This includes the formation of insulin-producing beta cells that do not co-express other endocrine hormones, have high levels of Pdx...

Organ culture provides a useful model that bridges the gaps between the complex but highly relevant in vivo investigations and the convenient but approximate simulation of cell line models. In the case of the pancreas, there is no cell line perfectly equivalent to pancreas progenitors although there are transformed cell lines simulating endocrine and exocrine cells. The adult whole pancreas cannot be cultured; isolated endocrine islets can be maintained for few weeks without cell proliferation and tissue slices can be kept in vitro for few hours 5. Embryonic pancreas culture has been widely used not only to study its development, but also to investigate epithelial-mesenchymal interactions 4,6,7, to image processes 8 or to chemically interfere with them 9. Two organ culture methods are mainly used: the first consists in culturing pancreatic buds on fibronectin coated plates 2, which is convenient for imaging purposes; the second option is to culture the organs on filters at the air-liquid interface 3,4 which best preserves morphogenesis. Although very useful, these methods lead to a certain degree of flattening; the expansion of progenitors is very limited as compared to the normal development and the starting population is complex comprising all types of pancreatic cells and mesenchymal cells.
The ability to culture and expand dispersed primary cells is valuable to study lineage relationships and uncover the intrinsic properties of isolated cell types 10. Sugiyama et al. 11 could maintain pancreas progenitors and endocrine progenitors that retained some functional characters for 3-5 days in culture on feeder layers. Pancreatospheres, akin to neurospheres 12 and mammospheres 13, have been expanded from adult islets and ductal cells although the nature of the progenitors/stem cells that generate these spheres is not clear. In addition, in contrast with physiological development, the pancreatospheres contained some neurons 14,15. Spheres were also recently produced from embryonic pancreas progenitors 16,17 and regenerating pancreata18 with good progenitor expansion and subsequent differentiation but failed to recapitulate morphogenesis.
3D models from dispersed and often defined cells that self-organize into miniaturized organs have recently flourished and simulate the development or adult turnover of multiple organs such as the intestine 19,20, the stomach 21, the liver 22, the prostate 23 and the trachea 24. In some instances, developmental morphogenesis and differentiation have been recapitulated in 3D from ES cells, as is the case of optic cups 25, intestine 26 or brain 27.
Here, we describe a method to expand dissociated multipotent pancreatic progenitors in a 3D Matrigel scaffold where they can differentiate and self-organize.

<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<td>Penicillin-Streptomycin</td>
			<td>Gibco</td>
			<td>15070-063</td>
			<td>Stock keept at -20&#176;C</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>KnockOut Serum replacement (supplement)</td>
			<td>Gibco</td>
			<td>10828-028</td>
			<td>Stock keept at -20&#176;C</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>2-mercaptoethanol</td>
			<td>Sigma Aldrich</td>
			<td>3148-25ML</td>
			<td>Stock keept at 4&#176;C</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Phorbol Myristate Acetate (PMA)</td>
			<td>Calbiotech</td>
			<td>524400-1MG</td>
			<td>Stock keept at -20&#176;C</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Y-27632 (ROCK inhibitor)</td>
			<td>Sigma Aldrich</td>
			<td>ab120129</td>
			<td>Stock keept at -20&#176;C- Attention! Stability/source is a frequent source of problems</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>EGF</td>
			<td>Sigma Aldrich</td>
			<td>E9644-2MG</td>
			<td>Stock keept at -80&#176;C</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Recombinant Human R-spondin 1</td>
			<td>R&#38;D</td>
			<td>4645-RS-025/CF</td>
			<td>Stock keept at -80&#176;C</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>&#160;- or -&#160;</td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Recombinant Mouse R-spondin 1</td>
			<td>R&#38;D</td>
			<td>3474-RS-050</td>
			<td>Stock keept at -80&#176;C</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Recombinant Human FGF1 (aFGF)</td>
			<td>R&#38;D</td>
			<td>232-FA-025</td>
			<td>Stock keept at -80&#176;C- do not include to increase beta cell production</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Heparin (Liquemin)</td>
			<td>Drossapharm</td>
			<td></td>
			<td>Stock keept at 4&#176;C</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Recombinant Human FGF10</td>
			<td>R&#38;D</td>
			<td>345-FG-025</td>
			<td>Stock keept at -80&#176;C</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>DMEM/F-12</td>
			<td>Gibco</td>
			<td>21331-020</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Penicillin-Streptomycin</td>
			<td>Gibco</td>
			<td>15070-063</td>
			<td>Stock keept at -20&#176;C</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>B27 x50 (supplement)</td>
			<td>Gibco</td>
			<td>17504-044</td>
			<td>Stock keept at -20&#176;C</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Recombinant Human FGF2 (bFGF)</td>
			<td>R&#38;D</td>
			<td>233-FB-025</td>
			<td>Stock keept at -80&#176;C</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Y-27632 (ROCK inhibitor)</td>
			<td>Sigma Aldrich</td>
			<td>ab120129</td>
			<td>Stock keept at -20&#176;C- Attention! Stability/source is a frequent source of problems</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>DMEM/F-12</td>
			<td>Gibco</td>
			<td>21331-020</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Matrigel</td>
			<td>Corning</td>
			<td>356231</td>
			<td>Stock keept at -20&#176;C</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Trypsin 0.05%</td>
			<td>Gibco</td>
			<td>25300-054</td>
			<td>Stock keept at 4&#176;C</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>RNAlater - RNA stabilizing reagent</td>
			<td>Qiagen</td>
			<td>76104</td>
			<td>Store at room temperature</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Dispase&#160;</td>
			<td>Sigma Aldrich</td>
			<td>D4818-2MG</td>
			<td>Stock keept at -20&#176;C</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>BSA for reconstitution</td>
			<td>Milipore</td>
			<td><a href="http://www.millipore.com/catalogue/item/81-068-3">81-068</a></td>
			<td>For reconstituition of cytokines&#160; - Stock keept at -20&#176;C</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Fetal calf serum (FCS)</td>
			<td>Gibco</td>
			<td>16141079</td>
			<td>Stock keept at -20&#176;C</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>60 well MicroWell trays</td>
			<td>Sigma Aldrich</td>
			<td>M0815-100EA</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>4-well plates</td>
			<td>Thermo Scientific</td>
			<td>176740</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>95-well plates F bottom</td>
			<td>Greiner Bio</td>
			<td>6555180</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Glas bottom plates</td>
			<td>Ibidi</td>
			<td>81158</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Disposal micropittes</td>
			<td>Blaubrand</td>
			<td>708745</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>

in vitro pancreas organogenesis from dispersed mouse embryonic progenitors

The pancreas is an essential organ that regulates glucose homeostasis and secretes digestive enzymes. Research on pancreas embryogenesis has led to the development of protocols to produce pancreatic cells from stem cells 1. The whole embryonic organ can be cultured at multiple stages of development 2-4. These culture methods have been useful to test drugs and to image developmental processes. However the expansion of the organ is very limited and morphogenesis is not faithfully recapitulated since the organ flattens. 
We propose three-dimensional (3D) culture conditions that enable the efficient expansion of dissociated mouse embryonic pancreatic progenitors. By manipulating the composition of the culture medium it is possible to generate either hollow spheres, mainly composed of pancreatic progenitors expanding in their initial state, or, complex organoids which progress to more mature expanding progenitors and differentiate into endocrine, acinar and ductal cells and which spontaneously self-organize to resemble the embryonic pancreas. 
We show here that the in vitro process recapitulates many aspects of natural pancreas development. This culture system is suitable to investigate how cells cooperate to form an organ by reducing its initial complexity to few progenitors. It is a model that reproduces the 3D architecture of the pancreas and that is therefore useful to study morphogenesis, including polarization of epithelial structures and branching. It is also appropriate to assess the response to mechanical cues of the niche such as stiffness and the effects on cell&#180;s tensegrity.

E10.5 dorsal pancreatic progenitors dissociated and seeded in 3D Matrigel recapitulate pancreas development. Progenitors can be most easily followed with fluorescent reporters. In our case we used a transgenic mouse that expresses a nuclear GFP protein controlled by Pdx1 promoter (Pdx1-Ngn3-ERTM-nGFP) (Movie 1) in the absence of tamoxifen and thus without activating Neurog3 4 (Figure 2).
With the organoid medium, an ini...

Watch this Scientific Journal Video about In Vitro Pancreas Organogenesis from Dispersed Mouse Embryonic Progenitors at JoVE.com

In Vitro Pancreas Organogenesis from Dispersed Mouse Embryonic Progenitors

The three-dimensional culture method described in this protocol recapitulates pancreas development from dispersed embryonic mouse pancreas progenitors, including their substantial expansion, differentiation and morphogenesis into a branched organ. This method is amenable to imaging, functional interference and manipulation of the niche.

In Vitro Pancreas Organogenesis from Dispersed Mouse Embryonic Progenitors

The pancreas is an essential organ that regulates glucose homeostasis and secretes digestive enzymes. Research on pancreas embryogenesis has led to the ...

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Isolation of high-quality RNA from ribonuclease-rich tissue such as mouse pancreas presents a challenge.  As a primary function of the pancreas is to aid ...

Protein Isolation from the Developing Embryonic Mouse Heart Valve Region

Western blot analysis is a commonly employed technique for detecting and quantifying protein levels. However, for small tissue samples, this analysis ...