Este trabajo fue apoyado por una beca del Programa de Premios Nueva Innovador del director del NIH (ED). AA fue financiada en parte por los premios de licenciatura del Instituto Nacional del Cáncer y la Fundación Nacional de Ciencia.

1. Hacer los vectores virales Las secuencias de codificación para el gen de interés, así como los controles positivos y negativos, se insertan en pBabePuro por los métodos tradicionales de clonación (amplificación por PCR, digestión de restricción y ligadura). Hay cuatro sitios de restricción en el vector donde se puede insertar el ADN: BamHI, SnaBI, EcoRI y SalI. <ol><li> Preparar transfección grado plásmido de ADN a partir de células competentes utilizando el kit de plásmido QIAGEN midi. </li><li> Medir la concentración de ADN usando un espectrofotómetro NanoDrop2000. </li></ol> 2. Retrovirus Producción La línea celular de empaquetamiento Plat-E se puede utilizar para producir retrovirus ecotrópico que entregará el ADNc de interés a las células NIH 3T3. <ol><li> Establecer Plat-E culturas de células congeladas <ol><li> Descongelar rápidamente las células Plat-E en un baño de agua ° C 37 y transferir a un tubo cónico de 15 ml. Poco a poco agregue 9 ml de medio Plat-E (DuMedio Eagle Modificado de lbecco (DMEM) + 10% de suero bovino fetal (FBS) + penicilina y estreptomicina). </li><li> Centrifugar el tubo a 180 x g durante 5 min y descartar el sobrenadante. </li><li> Vuelva a suspender las células con 10 ml de medio Plat-E y la transferencia a una placa de cultivo de 10 cm. </li><li> Se incuban las células en un 37 ° C, 5% de CO 2 incubadora hasta que son 80-90% de confluencia (aproximadamente 2 días). </li></ol></li><li> La división celular <ol><li> Aspirar el medio y lavar las células una vez con PBS. </li><li> Añadir 2 ml de 0,05% de tripsina-EDTA y se incuba durante 1 min a TA. </li><li> Separe las células por el dedo de tapping, añadir 10 ml de medio Plat-E, y transferir la suspensión celular a un tubo de 15 ml. </li><li> Centrifugar el tubo a 180 x g durante 5 min y descartar el sobrenadante. </li><li> Resuspender las células con 10 ml de medio Plat-E y sembrar en nuevos platos en 1: 4-1: 6 diluciones. </li></ol></li><li> Plat-E Siembra y transfección <ol><li> Semilla 2 x 10 6células por placa de 10 cm de cultivo utilizando medio Plat-E sin antibióticos. </li><li> Se incuban las células O / N en un 37 ° C, 5% de CO 2 incubadora. </li><li> Al día siguiente, la transferencia de 300 l de Opti-MEM en 1,5 ml tubo de microcentrífuga. </li><li> Añadir 27 l de polietilenimina (PEI), un reactivo de transfección rentable 12, al tubo preparado con Opti-MEM. Mezclar suavemente por el dedo tocando e incubar durante 5 min a TA. </li><li> Añadir 9 g de ADN plásmido de grado de transfección en el tubo de Opti-MEM / PEI, mezclar suavemente mediante agitación con vórtex, y se incuba durante 15 min a TA. </li><li> Añadir el ADN / PEI complejo gota a gota en el plato Plat-E, e incubar O / N a 37 ° C, 5% de CO 2. </li><li> Al día siguiente, aspirar el medio que contiene el reactivo de transfección y agregar 10 ml de medio Plat-E fresco (sin antibióticos). </li><li> Devolver las células a la incubadora. </li></ol></li></ol> 3. Las células NIH 3T3 y la infección <ol><li> El establecimiento de los NIHCulturas 3T3 y Siembra <ol><li> Descongelar rápidamente las células NIH 3T3 en un baño de agua ° C 37 y transferir a un tubo de 15 ml. Poco a poco agregue 9 ml de medio NIH 3T3 (DMEM + 10% FBS). </li><li> Centrifugar el tubo a 180 x g durante 5 min y descartar el sobrenadante. </li><li> Resuspender las células con 10 ml de medio y la transferencia de NIH 3T3 a una placa de cultivo de 10 cm. </li><li> Se incuban las células en un 37 ° C, 5% de CO 2 incubadora. Es muy importante que las células NIH 3T3 se mantienen siempre underconfluent (50-60%), como la frecuencia de transformación espontánea (y, por tanto, los niveles basales de la formación de focos) aumenta una vez al cultivo alcanza la confluencia. </li><li> Seed 3 x 10 5 células por placa de 10 cm y se incuban O / N para la infección el día siguiente. </li></ol></li><li> Infección <ol><li> Se recoge el sobrenadante retroviral de la placa de Plat-E mediante el uso de una jeringa desechable de 10 ml, filtrándola a través de un filtro de membrana de nylon de 0,45 micras de tamaño de poro, y transferir en un 15 mltubo. </li><li> Añadir 10 ml de medio Plat-E fresco a las células (sin antibióticos), y devolverlos a la incubadora. </li><li> Aspirar el medio de la placa de células NIH 3T3 de estar infectados, y añadir 5 ml de medio regular de NIH 3T3 y 5 ml de sobrenadante filtrado que contiene el virus. </li><li> Añadir al plato polibreno a una concentración de 6 mg / ml. </li><li> Se incuban las células O / N a 37 ° C, 5% de CO 2. </li><li> Al día siguiente, repita los pasos 3.2.1 - 3.2.5 para una segunda ronda de la infección. </li><li> Sustituya el medio que contiene el virus con medio normal NIH 3T3. </li><li> Permitir que las células NIH 3T3 crecer durante 2-3 semanas, reemplazando el medio según sea necesario. Compruebe expresión de la proteína de interés por electroforesis de proteínas convencional y inmunoblot sobre lisados ​​de células enteras de placas de réplica. </li></ol></li></ol> 4. La tinción y cuantificación <ol><li> Tinción con cristal violeta <ol><li> Aspirar el medio NIH 3T3 y coloque los platosen hielo. </li><li> Lavar los platos dos veces con helado de PBS. </li><li> Fijar las células con metanol enfriado con hielo durante 10 min. </li><li> Quitar los platos de hielo, aspirar el metanol, y añadir 3 ml de solución de cristal violeta al 0,5% hechos en 25% de metanol (RT). </li><li> Incubar los platos durante 5 min a RT. </li><li> Aspirar la solución de cristal violeta y enjuague cuidadosamente el plato con Milli-Q H 2 O hasta que no hay color sale en el enjuague. </li><li> Deje que los platos se sequen O / N en una mesa de trabajo (al descubierto). </li></ol></li><li> Focos Cuantificación <ol><li> Una vez que los platos están secos, use una regla para medir las colecciones de color oscuro de las células en el plato. Sólo contar los que son mayores que 5 mm de diámetro como &quot;focos&quot;. Registrar el número de focos y calcular los promedios y la importancia en comparación con los controles. </li></ol></li></ol>

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Los autores no tienen nada que revelar.

La FFA proporciona un método rápido y fácil de evaluar la transformación maligna in vitro. Es susceptible a la detección de un número relativamente grande de genes candidatos, y sus requisitos técnicos modestos que sea rentable. Además, dos o más genes pueden ser coexpressed (a veces conocido como un ensayo de la &quot;cooperación&quot;) para evaluar el potencial tumorigénico de la combinación. Las ventajas de este ensayo se basan en su técnica sencilla, su facilidad de cuantificación y su relativ...

Las células tumorales se pueden distinguir de sus homólogos normales por una amplia gama de alteraciones, a partir de patrones de expresión génica a epigenomics a cambios morfológicos y proliferativas. Entre estos últimos, la reducción de la dependencia de suero, la pérdida de contacto (densidad) la inhibición, la adquisición de la proliferación independiente de anclaje y, en última instancia, la capacidad de formar tumores cuando se inyectan en animales son útiles, indicadores medibles de la transformación maligna 3. Varios in vitro y en ensayos in vivo se han desarrollado para la transformación celular. Los ensayos in vitro como objetivo la identificación y medición de los cambios en la morfología de cultivo (ensayo de formación de foco), la dinámica de cultivo (tasa de crecimiento, densidad de saturación) y factor de crecimiento (crecimiento en el suero reducida) o fondeadero (crecimiento en agar blando) requisitos. El estándar de oro para la determinación de la naturaleza maligna de un tipo de célula sigue siendo la formación de tumores (xenoinjertos) en animales de experimentación. Sin embargo, tl costo y la duración de los estudios in vivo no siempre hacen justificable como un primer paso de validación o screening de oncogenes candidatos. Aunque no hay ensayo in vitro proporciona una evaluación definitiva de la potencial oncogénico de un gen, que no proporcionan información sobre potencial oncogénico que pueden reducir futuro en estudios in vivo. Uno de los sistemas más utilizados para evaluar el potencial oncogénico in vitro es la formación de ensayo Focus 2. Este enfoque se basa en el uso de NIH 3T3 de fibroblastos de ratón, una línea de células no transformadas que muestra la inhibición por contacto fuerte. La sobreexpresión de un oncogén resultados en pérdida de crecimiento dependiente de la densidad; a continuación, las células transformadas pueden crecer en múltiples capas, formando &quot;focos&quot;, fácil de visualizar contra la monocapa de fondo de células no transformadas. La formación de focos de ensayo, a continuación, mide la capacidad de un oncogén candidato para inducir la transformación maligna, como lo demuestra la pérdida de contacto inhibition como un fenotipo medible. El FFA ha sido utilizado para evaluar la transformación por la sobreexpresión de las proteínas quinasas (por ejemplo, Src 4, 5 BRAF), factores de transcripción (por ejemplo, N-myc 6) receptores, G acoplados a la proteína (por ejemplo, P2RY8 7) y GTPasas (por ejemplo, , Ras 1), entre otros. La relativa facilidad de este ensayo hace que sea una buena opción que proporcionará una respuesta rápida y visualmente claro si la sobreexpresión del gen es suficiente para transformar células de fibroblastos de ratón NIH 3T3 in vitro. El FFA se describe en este protocolo utiliza la línea celular de empaquetamiento Plat-E 8, que proporciona proteínas de empaquetamiento virales, y el vector retroviral pBabePuro 9 (Addgene plásmido 1764) para producir retrovirus. Después de la transfección con el constructo de pBabePuro que contiene el gen de interés, la línea celular Plat-E producirá retrovirus ecotrópico que se puede utilizar para infectar células NIH 3T3. Tsu método viral del suministro de genes es más eficiente que los métodos de transfección química tradicionales y ofrece una manera de expresar el gen sostenible 10. Una vez incorporado en el genoma de las células NIH 3T3, la sobreexpresión del gen de interés es impulsado por el promotor viral repeticiones terminales largas (LTR) 11. Esta expresión constante se puede utilizar para determinar si el gen de interés tiene actividad oncogénica, medida por la formación de focos, en las células NIH 3T3.

<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
	<tbody>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:413px;">pBABE-puro vector</td>
			<td style="width:127px;">Addgene</td>
			<td style="width:123px;">Plasmid 1764</td>
			<td style="width:171px;">cloning vector</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:413px;">Platinum-E Retroviral Packaging Cell Line, Ecotropic</td>
			<td style="width:127px;">Cell Biolabs, Inc.</td>
			<td style="width:123px;">RV-101</td>
			<td>cell line for viral production</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:413px;">NIH 3T3 Cell Line murine</td>
			<td style="width:127px;">Sigma-Aldrich</td>
			<td style="width:123px;">93061524</td>
			<td>cell line for focus formation assay</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:413px;">10 mL BD Luer-Lok tip syringe</td>
			<td style="width:127px;">BD Biosciences</td>
			<td style="width:123px;">309604</td>
			<td>viral production reagent</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:413px;">0.45 &#956;m Puradisc Syringe Filter</td>
			<td style="width:127px;">Whatman</td>
			<td style="width:123px;">6750-2504</td>
			<td>viral production reagent</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:413px;">Polyethylenimine (PEI)</td>
			<td style="width:127px;">Polysciences, Inc.</td>
			<td style="width:123px;">23966-2</td>
			<td>cell transfection reagent</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:413px;">Polybrene Infection / Transfection Reagent</td>
			<td style="width:127px;">EMD Millipore</td>
			<td style="width:123px;">TR-1003-G</td>
			<td>cell transfection reagent</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:413px;">Crystal Violet</td>
			<td style="width:127px;">Fisher Scientific</td>
			<td style="width:123px;">C581-25</td>
			<td>cell stain reagent</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:413px;">Plasmid Plus Midi Kit</td>
			<td style="width:127px;">QIAGEN</td>
			<td style="width:123px;">12945</td>
			<td>plasmid purification</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:413px;">BD Falcon Tissue Culture Dishes</td>
			<td style="width:127px;">BD Biosciences</td>
			<td style="width:123px;">353003</td>
			<td>cell culture supplies</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:413px;">Dulbecco&#39;s Modified Eagle Medium (DMEM)</td>
			<td style="width:127px;">Gibco</td>
			<td style="width:123px;">11995-065</td>
			<td>cell culture media</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:413px;">0.05% Trypsin-EDTA</td>
			<td style="width:127px;">Gibco</td>
			<td style="width:123px;">25300-054</td>
			<td>cell culture supplies</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:413px;">Opti-MEM I Reduced Serum Medium</td>
			<td style="width:127px;">Gibco</td>
			<td style="width:123px;">31985-062</td>
			<td>cell culture media</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:413px;">Fetal Bovine Serum (FBS)</td>
			<td style="width:127px;">Gibco</td>
			<td style="width:123px;">16000-044</td>
			<td>cell culture media</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>

focus formation: a cell-based assay to determine the oncogenic potential of a gene

Malignant transformation of cells is typically associated with increased proliferation, loss of contact inhibition, acquisition of anchorage-independent growth potential, and the ability to form tumors in experimental animals1. In NIH 3T3 cells, the Ras signal transduction pathway is known to trigger many of these events, what is known as Ras transformation. The introduction of an overexpressed gene in NIH 3T3 cells may promote morphological transformation and loss of contact inhibition, which can help determine the oncogenic potential of that gene of interest. An assay that provides a straightforward method to assess one aspect of the transforming potential of an oncogene is the Focus Formation Assay (FFA)2. When NIH 3T3 cells divide normally in culture, they do so until they reach a confluent monolayer. However, in the presence of an overexpressed oncogene, these cells can begin to grow in dense, multilayered foci1 that can be visualized and quantified by crystal violet or Hema 3 staining. In this article we describe the FFA protocol with retroviral transduction of the gene of interest into NIH 3T3 cells, and how to quantify the number of foci through staining. Retroviral transduction offers a more efficient method of gene delivery than transfection, and the use of an ecotropic murine retrovirus provides a biosafety control when working with potential human oncogenes.

MXD3 es un factor de transcripción de la cremallera de leucina básica hélice-bucle-hélice (bHLHZ) que es un miembro de la MYC / MAX / MAD red. Es un miembro atípico de la familia MAD 13-15, y se ha informado a participar en la carcinogénesis 16,17. Cuando se compara con pBabePuro (control negativo) y MYC (control positivo), los platos NIH 3T3 donde se sobreexpresa MXD3 tuvieron significativamente menos focos (Figura 1A). Los datos en la Figura 1B se recogiero...

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Focus Formation: A Cell-based Assay to Determine the Oncogenic Potential of a Gene

El ensayo Focus Formación ofrece un método sencillo para evaluar el potencial de transformación de un oncogén candidato.

Enfoque Formación: Un análisis basado en células para determinar el potencial oncogénico de un gen

Malignant transformation of cells is typically associated with increased proliferation, loss of contact inhibition, acquisition of anchorage-independent ...

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27.7K vistas.  University of California, Davis.  El ensayo Focus Formación ofrece un método sencillo para evaluar el potencial de transformación de un oncogén candidato. 

Video: Focus Formation: A Cell-based Assay to Determine the Oncogenic Potential of a Gene

Biomarkers in an Animal Model for Revealing Neural, Hematologic, and Behavioral Correlates of PTSD

Identification of biomarkers representing the evolution of the pathophysiology of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is vitally important, not only for objective diagnosis but also for the evaluation of therapeutic efficacy and resilience to trauma. Ongoing research is directed at identifying molecular biomarkers for PTSD, including traumatic stress induced proteins, transcriptomes, genomic variances and genetic modulators, using biologic samples from subjects' blood, saliva, urine, and postmortem brain tissues. However, the correlation of these biomarker molecules in peripheral or postmortem samples to altered brain functions associated with psychiatric symptoms in PTSD remains unresolved. Here, we present an animal model of PTSD in which both peripheral blood and central brain biomarkers, as well as behavioral phenotype, can be collected and measured, thus providing the needed correlation of the central biomarkers of PTSD, which are mechanistic and pathognomonic but cannot be collected from people, with the peripheral biomarkers and behavioral phenotypes, which can.
Our animal model of PTSD employs restraint and tail shocks repeated for three continuous days - the inescapable tail-shock model (ITS) in rats. This ITS model mimics the pathophysiology of PTSD 17, 7, 4, 10. We and others have verified that the ITS model induces behavioral and neurobiological alterations similar to those found in PTSD subjects 17, 7, 10, 9. Specifically, these stressed rats exhibit (1) a delayed and exaggerated startle response appearing several days after stressor cessation, which given the compressed time scale of the rat's life compared to a humans, corresponds to the one to three months delay of symptoms in PTSD patients (DSM-IV-TR PTSD Criterian D/E 13), (2) enhanced plasma corticosterone (CORT) for several days, indicating compromise of the hypothalamopituitary axis (HPA), and (3) retarded body weight gain after stressor cessation, indicating dysfunction of metabolic regulation.
The experimental paradigms employed for this model are: (1) a learned helplessness paradigm in the rat assayed by measurement of acoustic startle response (ASR) and a charting of body mass; (2) microdissection of the rat brain into regions and nuclei; (3) enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for blood levels of CORT; (4) a gene expression microarray plus related bioinformatics tools 18. This microarray, dubbed rMNChip, focuses on mitochondrial and mitochondria-related nuclear genes in the rat so as to specifically address the neuronal bioenergetics hypothesized to be involved in PTSD.

We describe a rat model of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) that reveals the persistent alterations in neuroendocrine function and the delayed long-term, exaggerated fear response, characteristic of PTSD patients. The animal model and methods described here are useful for correlating biomarkers in brain nuclei, which are mechanistic but cannot be measured in patients, with biomarkers in peripheral white blood cells, which can.

Biomarcadores en un modelo animal para Revelar correlatos neurales, hematológicas y conductuales de estrés postraumático

Identification of biomarkers representing the evolution of the pathophysiology of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is vitally important, not only for ...

Investigación

Medicina

A Novel Surgical Approach for Intratracheal Administration of Bioactive Agents in a Fetal Mouse Model

Prenatal pulmonary delivery of cells, genes or pharmacologic agents could provide the basis for new therapeutic strategies for a variety of genetic and acquired diseases. Apart from congenital or inherited abnormalities with the requirement for long-term expression of the delivered gene, several non-inherited perinatal conditions, where short-term gene expression or pharmacological intervention is sufficient to achieve therapeutic effects, are considered as potential future indications for this kind of approach. Candidate diseases for the application of short-term prenatal therapy could be the transient neonatal deficiency of surfactant protein B causing neonatal respiratory distress syndrome1,2 or hyperoxic injuries of the neonatal lung3. Candidate diseases for permanent therapeutic correction are Cystic Fibrosis (CF)4, genetic variants of surfactant deficiencies5 and &alpha;1-antitrypsin deficiency6.
Generally, an important advantage of prenatal gene therapy is the ability to start therapeutic intervention early in development, at or even prior to clinical manifestations in the patient, thus preventing irreparable damage to the individual. In addition, fetal organs have an increased cell proliferation rate as compared to adult organs, which could allow a more efficient gene or stem cell transfer into the fetus. Furthermore, in utero gene delivery is performed when the individual's immune system is not completely mature. Therefore, transplantation of heterologous cells or supplementation of a non-functional or absent protein with a correct version should not cause immune sensitization to the cell, vector or transgene product, which has recently been proven to be the case with both cellular and genetic therapies7.
In the present study, we investigated the potential to directly target the fetal trachea in a mouse model. This procedure is in use in larger animal models such as rabbits and sheep8, and even in a clinical setting9, but has to date not been performed before in a mouse model. When studying the potential of fetal gene therapy for genetic diseases such as CF, the mouse model is very useful as a first proof-of-concept because of the wide availability of different transgenic mouse strains, the well documented embryogenesis and fetal development, less stringent ethical regulations, short gestation and the large litter size.
Different access routes have been described to target the fetal rodent lung, including intra-amniotic injection10-12, (ultrasound-guided) intrapulmonary injection13,14 and intravenous administration into the yolk sac vessels15,16 or umbilical vein17. Our novel surgical procedure enables researchers to inject the agent of choice directly into the fetal mouse trachea which allows for a more efficient delivery to the airways than existing techniques18.

We developed a novel surgical approach for intratracheal administration of bioactive agents into the mouse fetus. The delivery route is more efficient in targeting the fetal mouse lungs than the commonly used intra-amniotic injection. This procedure has to date not been described in a mouse model.

Un nuevo enfoque quirúrgico para la administración intratraqueal de agentes bioactivos en un modelo de ratón fetal

Prenatal pulmonary delivery of cells, genes or pharmacologic agents could provide the basis for new therapeutic strategies for a variety of genetic and ...

High-throughput Flow Cytometry Cell-based Assay to Detect Antibodies to N-Methyl-D-aspartate Receptor or Dopamine-2 Receptor in Human Serum

Over the recent years, antibodies against surface and conformational proteins involved in neurotransmission have been detected in autoimmune CNS diseases in children and adults. These antibodies have been used to guide diagnosis and treatment. Cell-based assays have improved the detection of antibodies in patient serum. They are based on the surface expression of brain antigens on eukaryotic cells, which are then incubated with diluted patient sera followed by fluorochrome-conjugated secondary antibodies. After washing, secondary antibody binding is then analyzed by flow cytometry. Our group has developed a high-throughput flow cytometry live cell-based assay to reliably detect antibodies against specific neurotransmitter receptors. This flow cytometry method is straight forward, quantitative, efficient, and the use of a high-throughput sampler system allows for large patient cohorts to be easily assayed in a short space of time. Additionally, this cell-based assay can be easily adapted to detect antibodies to many different antigenic targets, both from the central nervous system and periphery. Discovering additional novel antibody biomarkers will enable prompt and accurate diagnosis and improve treatment of immune-mediated disorders.

Over the recent years, live cell-based assays have been used successfully to detect antibodies against surface and conformational antigens. Here, we describe a method using high-throughput flow cytometry enabling the analysis of large cohorts of patients. Detection of novel antibodies will improve diagnosis and treatment of immune-mediated disorders.

Ensayo de alto rendimiento basado en células citometría de flujo para detectar anticuerpos a la N-metil-D-aspartato receptor o dopamina-2 del receptor en suero humano

Over the recent years, antibodies against surface and conformational proteins involved in neurotransmission have been detected in autoimmune CNS diseases ...

A Modified In vitro Invasion Assay to Determine the Potential Role of Hormones, Cytokines and/or Growth Factors in Mediating Cancer Cell Invasion

Blood serum serves as a chemoattractant towards which cancer cells migrate and invade, facilitating their intravasation into microvessels. However, the actual molecules towards which the cells migrate remain elusive. This modified invasion assay has been developed to identify targets which drive cell migration and invasion. This technique compares the invasion index under three conditions to determine whether a specific hormone, growth factor, or cytokine plays a role in mediating the invasive potential of a cancer cell. These conditions include i) normal fetal bovine serum (FBS), ii) charcoal-stripped FBS (CS-FBS), which removes hormones, growth factors, and cytokines and iii) CS-FBS + molecule (denoted &#8220;X&#8221;). A significant change in cell invasion with CS-FBS as compared to FBS, indicates the involvement of hormones, cytokines or growth factors in mediating the change. Individual molecules can then be added back to CS-FBS to assay their ability to reverse or rescue the invasion phenotype. Furthermore, two or more factors can be combined to evaluate the additive or synergistic effects of multiple molecules in driving or inhibiting invasion. Overall, this method enables the investigator to determine whether hormones, cytokines, and/or growth factors play a role in cell invasion by serving as chemoattractants or inhibitors of invasion for a particular type of cancer cell or a specific mutant. By identifying specific chemoattractants and inhibitors, this modified invasion assay may help to elucidate signaling pathways that direct cancer cell invasion.

A Modified In vitro Invasion Assay to Determine the Potential Role of Hormones, Cytokines and/or Growth Factors in Mediating Cancer Cell Invasion

This video article describes a modified in vitro method to examine the role of hormones, cytokines and/or growth factors in driving cancer cell invasion.

Un Modificado<em&gt; In vitro</em&gt; Invasión Ensayo para determinar el papel potencial de hormonas, citoquinas y / o factores de crecimiento en la invasión de células del cáncer de Mediación

Blood serum serves as a chemoattractant towards which cancer cells migrate and invade, facilitating their intravasation into microvessels. However, the ...

A Novel in vivo Gene Transfer Technique and in vitro Cell Based Assays for the Study of Bone Loss in Musculoskeletal Disorders

Differentiation and activation of osteoclasts play a key role in the development of musculoskeletal diseases as these cells are primarily involved in bone resorption. Osteoclasts can be generated in vitro from monocyte/macrophage precursor cells in the presence of certain cytokines, which promote survival and differentiation. Here, both in vivo and in vitro techniques are demonstrated, which allow scientists to study different cytokine contributions towards osteoclast differentiation, signaling, and activation. The minicircle DNA delivery gene transfer system provides an alternative method to establish an osteoporosis-related model is particularly useful to study the efficacy of various pharmacological inhibitors in vivo. Similarly, in vitro culturing protocols for producing osteoclasts from human precursor cells in the presence of specific cytokines enables scientists to study osteoclastogenesis in human cells for translational applications. Combined, these techniques have the potential to accelerate drug discovery efforts for osteoclast-specific targeted therapeutics, which may benefit millions of osteoporosis and arthritis patients worldwide.

A Novel in vivo Gene Transfer Technique and in vitro Cell Based Assays for the Study of Bone Loss in Musculoskeletal Disorders

Differentiation of precursor cells into osteoclasts is regulated by cytokines and growth factors. Here, a novel gene transfer technique for differentiation of osteoclasts in vivo and cell culture protocols for differentiating precursor cells into osteoclasts in vitro as a method to study the effects of cytokines on osteoclastogenesis are described.

A Novel<em&gt; In vivo</em&gt; Técnica de transferencia de genes y<em&gt; In vitro</em&gt; ensayos basados ​​en células para el estudio de la pérdida ósea en los trastornos musculoesqueléticos

Differentiation and activation of osteoclasts play a key role in the development of musculoskeletal diseases as these cells are primarily involved in bone ...

Three-Dimensional (3D) Tumor Spheroid Invasion Assay

Invasion of surrounding normal tissues is generally considered to be a key hallmark of malignant (as opposed to benign) tumors. For some cancers in particular (e.g., brain tumors such as glioblastoma multiforme and squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck &#8211; SCCHN) it is a cause of severe morbidity and can be life-threatening even in the absence of distant metastases. In addition, cancers which have relapsed following treatment unfortunately often present with a more aggressive phenotype. Therefore, there is an opportunity to target the process of invasion to provide novel therapies that could be complementary to standard anti-proliferative agents. Until now, this strategy has been hampered by the lack of robust, reproducible assays suitable for a detailed analysis of invasion and for drug screening. Here we provide a simple micro-plate method (based on uniform, self-assembling 3D tumor spheroids) which has great potential for such studies. We exemplify the assay platform using a human glioblastoma cell line and also an SCCHN model where the development of resistance against targeted epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) inhibitors is associated with enhanced matrix-invasive potential. We also provide two alternative methods of semi-automated quantification: one using an imaging cytometer and a second which simply requires standard microscopy and image capture with digital image analysis.

Three-Dimensional 3D Tumor Spheroid Invasion Assay

Invasion of surrounding normal tissues is a defining characteristic of malignant tumors. We provide here a simple, semi-automated micro-plate assay of invasion into a natural 3D biomatrix that has been exemplified with a number of models of advanced human cancers.

Tumor Ensayo tridimensional (3D) esferoide Invasion

Invasion of surrounding normal tissues is generally considered to be a key hallmark of malignant (as opposed to benign) tumors. For some cancers in ...

Utilization of the Soft Agar Colony Formation Assay to Identify Inhibitors of Tumorigenicity in Breast Cancer Cells

Given the inherent difficulties in investigating the mechanisms of tumor progression in vivo, cell-based assays such as the soft agar colony formation assay (hereafter called soft agar assay), which measures the ability of cells to proliferate in semi-solid matrices, remain a hallmark of cancer research. A key advantage of this technique over conventional 2D monolayer or 3D spheroid cell culture assays is the close mimicry of the 3D cellular environment to that seen in vivo. Importantly, the soft agar assay also provides an ideal tool to rigorously test the effects of novel compounds or treatment conditions on cell proliferation and migration. Additionally, this assay enables the quantitative assessment of cell transformation potential within the context of genetic perturbations. We recently identified peptidylarginine deiminase 2 (PADI2) as a potential breast cancer biomarker and therapeutic target. Here we highlight the utility of the soft agar assay for preclinical anti-cancer studies by testing the effects of the PADI inhibitor, BB-Cl-amidine (BB-CLA), on the tumorigenicity of human ductal carcinoma in situ (MCF10DCIS) cells.

Here, we document the use of the soft agar colony formation assay to test the effects of a peptidylarginine deiminase (PADI) enzyme inhibitor, BB-Cl-amidine, on breast cancer tumorigenicity in vitro.

Utilización del ensayo Soft Agar formación de colonias para identificar inhibidores de tumorigenicidad en células de cáncer de mama

Given the inherent difficulties in investigating the mechanisms of tumor progression in vivo, cell-based assays such as the soft agar colony formation ...

TRUE Gene Silencing: Screening of a Heptamer-type Small Guide RNA Library for Potential Cancer Therapeutic Agents

TRUE gene silencing (termed after tRNase ZL-utilizing efficacious gene silencing) is one of the RNA-directed gene silencing technologies, which utilizes an artificial small guide RNA (sgRNA) to guide tRNA 3&#8242; processing endoribonuclease, tRNase ZL, to recognize a target RNA. sgRNAs can be taken up by cells without any transfection reagents and can downregulate their target RNA levels and/or induce apoptosis in human cancer cells. We have screened an sgRNA library containing 156 heptamer-type sgRNAs for the effect on viability of human myeloma and leukemia cells, and found that 20 of them can efficiently induce apoptosis in at least one of the cancer cell lines. Here we present a protocol for screening of a heptamer-type sgRNA library for potential therapeutic drugs against blood cancers. The protocol includes how to construct the sgRNA library, how to assess the effect of each sgRNA on cell viability, and how to further evaluate the effective sgRNAs by flow cytometry. Around 2,000 hits would be expected to be obtained by screening the full-scale sgRNA library composed of 16,384 heptamers.

Here we present a protocol for screening of a heptamer-type sgRNA library for potential therapeutic drugs against blood cancers.

TRUE silenciamiento génico: Proyección de un tipo heptámero Guía Pequeño ARN Biblioteca de agentes terapéuticos potenciales del cáncer

TRUE gene silencing (termed after tRNase ZL-utilizing efficacious gene silencing) is one of the RNA-directed gene silencing technologies, which utilizes ...

Injection of Syngeneic Murine Melanoma Cells to Determine Their Metastatic Potential in the Lungs

Approximately 90% of human cancer deaths are linked to metastasis. Despite the prevalence and relative harm of metastasis, therapeutics for treatment or prevention are lacking. We report a method for the establishment of pulmonary metastases in mice, useful for the study of this phenomenon. Tail vein injection of B57BL/6J mice with B16-BL6 is among the most used models for melanoma metastases. Some of the circulating tumor cells establish themselves in the lungs of the mouse, creating "experimental" metastatic foci. With this model it is possible to measure the relative effects of therapeutic agents on the development of cancer metastasis. The difference in enumerated lung foci between treated and untreated mice indicates the efficacy of metastases neutralization. However, prior to the investigation of a therapeutic agent, it is necessary to determine an optimal number of injected B16-BL6 cells for the quantitative analysis of metastatic foci. Injection of too many cells may result in an overabundance of metastatic foci, impairing proper quantification and overwhelming the effects of anti-cancer therapies, while injection of too few cells will hinder the comparison between treated and controls.

Metastasis plays a profound role in the virulence of cancer, accounting for an estimated 90% of deaths. We report a protocol for a metastatic melanoma model in mice that is useful for determining the efficacy of therapeutic agents against this clinical phenomenon.

La inyección de células de melanoma murino singénico para determinar su potencial metastásico en los pulmones

Approximately 90% of human cancer deaths are linked to metastasis.  Despite the prevalence and relative harm of metastasis, therapeutics for treatment or ...

A Choroid Plexus Epithelial Cell-based Model of the Human Blood-Cerebrospinal Fluid Barrier to Study Bacterial Infection from the Basolateral Side

The epithelial cells of the choroid plexus (CP), located in the ventricular system of the brain, form the blood-cerebrospinal fluid barrier (BCSFB). The BCSFB functions in separating the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) from the blood and restricting the molecular exchange to a minimum extent. An in vitro model of the BCSFB is based on cells derived from a human choroid plexus papilloma (HIBCPP). HIBCPP cells display typical barrier functions including formation of tight junctions (TJs), development of a transepithelial electrical resistance (TEER), as well as minor permeabilities for macromolecules. There are several pathogens that can enter the central nervous system (CNS) via the BCSFB and subsequently cause severe disease like meningitis. One of these pathogens is Neisseria meningitidis (N. meningitidis), a human-specific bacterium. Employing the HIBCPP cells in an inverted cell culture filter insert system enables to study interactions of pathogens with cells of the BCSFB from the basolateral cell side, which is relevant in vivo. In this article, we describe seeding and culturing of HIBCPP cells on cell culture inserts. Further, infection of the cells with N. meningitidis along with analysis of invaded and adhered bacteria via double immunofluorescence is demonstrated. As the cells of the CP are also involved in other diseases, including neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimer`s disease and Multiple Sclerosis, as well as during the brain metastasis of tumor cells, the model system can also be applied in other fields of research. It provides the potential to decipher molecular mechanisms and to identify novel therapeutic targets.

The epithelial cells of the choroid plexus (CP) form the blood-cerebrospinal fluid barrier (BCSFB). An in vitro model of the BCSFB employs human choroid plexus papilloma (HIBCPP) cells. This article describes culturing and basolateral infection of HIBCPP cells using a cell culture filter insert system.

Un modelo basado en células epiteliales del plexo coroideo de la barrera de fluido cerebroespinal humano Sangre-para estudiar la infección bacteriana desde el lado basolateral

The epithelial cells of the choroid plexus (CP), located in the ventricular system of the brain, form the blood-cerebrospinal fluid barrier (BCSFB). The ...