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Baylor College of Medicine

122 ARTICLES PUBLISHED IN JoVE

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Biology

Induction and Clinical Scoring of Chronic-Relapsing Experimental Autoimmune Encephalomyelitis
Christine Beeton 1, Adriana Garcia 1, K. George Chandy 1
1Department of Physiology and Biophysics, University of California, Irvine (UCI)

This video demonstrates the induction and clinical scoring of an animal model of multiple sclerosis: chronic-relapsing experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis in DA rats. The disease, induced by immunizing rats with an emulsion containing whole rat spinal cord and complete Freund's adjuvant, presents clinical signs resembling the human disease.

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Biology

Induction and Monitoring of Active Delayed Type Hypersensitivity (DTH) in Rats
Christine Beeton 1, K. George Chandy 1
1Department of Physiology and Biophysics, University of California, Irvine (UCI)

Delayed type hypersensitivity (DTH) is an inflammatory reaction mediated by CCR7- effector memory T lymphocytes. Here we demonstrate how to induce active DTH in Lewis rats and monitor the inflammatory response.

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Biology

Drawing Blood from Rats through the Saphenous Vein and by Cardiac Puncture
Christine Beeton 1, Adriana Garcia 1, K. George Chandy 1
1Department of Physiology and Biophysics, University of California, Irvine (UCI)

Blood draws are necessary in a large number of studies, for example to study the pharmacokinetics profile of a compound. Here, we demonstrate how to draw blood from rats using two techniques: blood draw from the saphenous vein or by cardiac puncture.

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Biology

Induction and Monitoring of Adoptive Delayed-Type Hypersensitivity in Rats
Christine Beeton 1, K. George Chandy 1
1Department of Physiology and Biophysics, University of California, Irvine (UCI)

Delayed type hypersensitivity (DTH) is an inflammatory reaction mediated by CCR7- effector memory T (TEM) lymphocytes. Here we demonstrate how to activate antigen-specific TEM cells, induce adoptive DTH in Lewis rats and monitor the inflammatory response.

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Biology

Enrichment of NK Cells from Human Blood with the RosetteSep Kit from StemCell Technologies
Christine Beeton 1, K. George Chandy 1
1Department of Physiology and Biophysics, University of California, Irvine (UCI)

Natural killer cells are a small population of lymphocytes. Here we show how to isolate these cells from human blood by negative selection, using a kit from StemCell Technologies. The cells obtained are viable and untouched by antibodies, and therefore ready to be used for a number of procedures.

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Biology

Preparing T Cell Growth Factor from Rat Splenocytes
Christine Beeton 1, K. George Chandy 1
1Department of Physiology and Biophysics, University of California, Irvine (UCI)

We describe the preparation of T cell growth factor used for the in vitro expansion of antigen-specific rat T lymphocyte lines.

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Biology

Isolation of Mononuclear Cells from the Central Nervous System of Rats with EAE
Christine Beeton 1, K. George Chandy 1
1Department of Physiology and Biophysics, University of California, Irvine (UCI)

In this video we demonstrate how to isolate mononuclear cells from the central nervous system of rats with experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis.

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Biology

Imaging Effector Memory T cells in the Ear After Induction of Adoptive DTH
Melanie P. Matheu 1, Christine Beeton 1, Ian Parker 2, K. George Chandy 1, Michael D. Cahalan 1
1Department of Physiology and Biophysics, University of California, Irvine (UCI), 2Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, University of California, Irvine (UCI)

Here we demonstrate a method for inducing and recording the progress of a delayed type-hypersensitivity (DTH) reaction in the rat ear. This is followed by a demonstration of the preparation of rat ear tissue for two-photon imaging of the effector / memory T cell response.

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Biology

A Reversible, Non-invasive Method for Airway Resistance Measurements and Bronchoalveolar Lavage Fluid Sampling in Mice
Sumanth Polikepahad 1, Wade T. Barranco 1, Paul Porter 1, Bruce Anderson 2, Farrah Kheradmand 1,3, David B. Corry 1,3
1Department of Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine (BCM), 2Millenium Premier Group, 3Department of Immunology, Baylor College of Medicine (BCM)

Repeated measurements of rodent respiratory physiology and sampling of airway inflammatory cells are desirable, but generally not feasible. Here we describe a repeatable method for orally intubating mice that permits repeated measurements of airway hyperreactivity and sampling of airway inflammatory cells.

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Medicine

A Protocol for Comprehensive Assessment of Bulbar Dysfunction in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS)
Yana Yunusova 1,2, Jordan R. Green 3, Jun Wang 3, Gary Pattee 4, Lorne Zinman 2,5
1Department of Speech-Language Pathology, University of Toronto, 2ALS/ MN Clinic, Sunnybrook Health Science Centre, 3Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 4Department of Neurology, Munroe-Meyer Institute, University of Nebraska Medical Center, 5Department of Neurology, University of Toronto

Objective assessments of the physiological mechanisms that support speech are needed to monitor disease onset and progression in persons with ALS and to quantify treatment effects in clinical trials. In this video, we present a comprehensive, instrumentation-based protocol for quantifying speech motor performance in clinical populations.

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Biology

Quantitative Measurement of GLUT4 Translocation to the Plasma Membrane by Flow Cytometry
Shyny Koshy 1, Parema Alizadeh 1, Lubov T. Timchenko 1, Christine Beeton 1
1Department of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics, Baylor College of Medicine

This protocol describes a rapid technique to quantify the translocation of GLUT4 from the cytoplasm to the plasma membrane of cells by flow cytometry.

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Biology

Detection of Functional Matrix Metalloproteinases by Zymography
Xueyou Hu 1, Christine Beeton 1
1Department of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics, Baylor College of Medicine

This protocol describes an activity-based assay for detecting matrix metalloproteinases in culture supernatants or body fluids.

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Biology

Imaging Cell Shape Change in Living Drosophila Embryos
Lauren Figard 1, Anna Marie Sokac 1,2
1Program in Cell & Molecular Biology, Baylor College of Medicine (BCM), 2Verna & Marrs McLean Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Baylor College of Medicine (BCM)

Early development of the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, is characterized by a number of cell shape changes that are well suited for imaging approaches. This article will describe basic tools and methods required for live confocal imaging of Drosophila embryos, and will focus on a cell shape change called cellularization.

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Medicine

Establishment and Propagation of Human Retinoblastoma Tumors in Immune Deficient Mice
Wesley S. Bond 1,2, Lalita Wadhwa 2,3, Laszlo Perlaky 2,3, Rebecca L. Penland 4, Mary Y. Hurwitz 2,3, Richard L. Hurwitz *2,3,5,6, Patricia Chèvez-Barrios *4,5,7
1Interdepartmental Program in Translational Biology & Molecular Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine, 2Texas Children's Cancer Center, Baylor College of Medicine, 3Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, 4Department of Pathology, The Methodist Hospital Research Institute, 5Department of Ophthalmology, Retinoblastoma Center of Houston, 6Baylor College of Medicine, Center for Cell and Gene Therapy, 7Center for Cell and Gene Therapy, Baylor College of Medicine

A method is described to propagate human retinoblastoma tumors in mice. Tumor cells are directly injected into the eyes of immune deficient mice. Secondary tumors have been successfully established using both cells directly harvested from human tumors and cultured tumorspheres.

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Neuroscience

Transfection of Mouse Retinal Ganglion Cells by in vivo Electroporation
Onkar S. Dhande 1,2, Michael C. Crair 1
1Department of Neurobiology, Yale University, 2Program in Developmental Biology, Baylor College of Medicine

We demonstrate an in vivo electroporation protocol for transfecting single or small clusters of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) and other retinal cell types in postnatal mice over a wide range of ages. The ability to label and genetically manipulate postnatal RGCs in vivo is a powerful tool for developmental studies.

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Immunology and Infection

Generation of Multivirus-specific T Cells to Prevent/treat Viral Infections after Allogeneic Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant
Ulrike Gerdemann 1, Juan F. Vera 1, Cliona M. Rooney 1, Ann M. Leen 1
1Center for Cell and Gene Therapy, Baylor College of Medicine

A rapid, simple and cost-effective protocol for the generation of donor-derived multivirus-specific CTLs (rCTL) for infusion to allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT) recipients at risk of developing CMV, Adv or EBV infections. This manufacturing process is GMP-compliant and should ensure the broader implementation of T-cell immunotherapy beyond specialized centers.

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Neuroscience

A Rapid Approach to High-Resolution Fluorescence Imaging in Semi-Thick Brain Slices
Jennifer Selever 1, Jian-Qiang Kong 2, Benjamin R. Arenkiel 3,4
1Department of Molecular & Human Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine (BCM), 2Precisionary Instruments Inc., 3Departments of Molecular & Human Genetics and Neuroscience, Baylor College of Medicine (BCM), 4Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute, Texas Children's Hospital

Here we describe a rapid and simple method to image fluorescently labeled cells in semi-thick brain slices. By fixing, slicing, and optically clearing brain tissue we describe how standard epifluorescent or confocal imaging can be used to visualize individual cells and neuronal networks within intact nervous tissue.

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Biology

Induction and Testing of Hypoxia in Cell Culture
Danli Wu 1, Patricia Yotnda 1
1Center for Cell and Gene Therapy, Baylor College of Medicine

Here we propose simple methods to induce hypoxia in cell cultures and simple tests to evaluate the hypoxic status of the cultures.

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Medicine

Production and Detection of Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) in Cancers
Danli Wu 1, Patricia Yotnda 1
1Center for Cell and Gene Therapy, Baylor College of Medicine

Here we propose simple methods to test and evaluate the presence of reactive oxygen species in cells.

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Immunology and Infection

Following Cell-fate in E. coli After Infection by Phage Lambda
Lanying Zeng 1, Ido Golding 1,2,3
1Department of Physics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2Center for the Physics of Living Cells, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 3Verna and Marrs McLean Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Baylor College of Medicine

This article describes the procedure for preparing a fluorescently-labeled version of bacteriophage lambda, infection of E. coli bacteria, following the infection outcome under the microscope, and analysis of infection results.

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Bioengineering

Rotating Cell Culture Systems for Human Cell Culture: Human Trophoblast Cells as a Model
Kevin J. Zwezdaryk *1, Jessica A. Warner *1,2, Heather L. Machado 3, Cindy A. Morris 1, Kerstin Höner zu Bentrup 1
1Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Tulane University Medical School, 2Physician/Scientist Program, Tulane University Medical School, 3Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Baylor College of Medicine

Traditional, two dimensional cell culture techniques often result in altered characteristics with respect to differentiation markers, cytokines and growth factors. Three-dimensional cell culture in the rotating cell culture system (RCCS) reestablishes expression of many of these factors as shown here with an extravillous trophoblast cell line.

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Biology

Detection of Protein Interactions in Plant using a Gateway Compatible Bimolecular Fluorescence Complementation (BiFC) System
Gang Tian 1, Qing Lu 2, Li Zhang 2, Susanne E. Kohalmi 1, Yuhai Cui 2
1Department of Biology, University of Western Ontario, 2Southern Crop Protection and Food Research Centre, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada

We have developed a technique to test protein-protein interactions in plant. A yellow fluorescent protein (YFP) is split into two non-overlapping fragments. Each fragment is cloned in-frame to a gene of interest via Gateway system, enabling expression of fusion proteins. Reconstitution of YFP signal only occurs when the inquest proteins interact.

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Bioengineering

In vitro Assembly of Semi-artificial Molecular Machine and its Use for Detection of DNA Damage
Candace L. Minchew 1,2, Vladimir V. Didenko 1,2,3
1Neurosurgery, Baylor College of Medicine , 2Michael E. DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center, 3Molecular & Cellular Biology, Baylor College of Medicine

We demonstrate the assembly and application of a molecular-scale device powered by a topoisomerase protein. The construct is a bio-molecular sensor which labels two major types of DNA breaks in tissue sections by attaching two different fluorophores to their ends.

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Medicine

Staining Protocols for Human Pancreatic Islets
Martha L. Campbell-Thompson 1, Tiffany Heiple 1, Emily Montgomery 1, Li Zhang 1, Lynda Schneider 1
1Department of Pathology, Immunology, and Laboratory Medicine, University of Florida

This video demonstrates procedures for characterization of human pancreatic islets using hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) and immunohistochemistry (IHC). Pancreatic sections from head, body, and tail regions are stained by both H&E and IHC to determine islet endocrine composition (insulin, glucagon, and pancreatic polypeptide), cell replication (Ki67), and inflammatory infiltrates (H&E, CD3). The uncinate region is localized using IHC for pancreatic polypeptide.

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Immunology and Infection

piggyBac Transposon System Modification of Primary Human T Cells
Sunandan Saha 1,2, Yozo Nakazawa 3, Leslie E. Huye 4,5, Joseph E. Doherty 2,6, Daniel L. Galvan 2, Cliona M. Rooney 4,5,7, Matthew H. Wilson 1,2,4,8
1Program in Translational Biology and Molecular Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine , 2Department of Medicine, Division of Nephrology, Baylor College of Medicine , 3Department of Immunology and Pathology, Shinshu University School of Medicine, 4Center for Cell and Gene Therapy, Baylor College of Medicine , 5Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine , 6Program in Cell and Molecular Biology, Baylor College of Medicine , 7Department of Molecular Virology and Microbiology, Baylor College of Medicine , 8Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center

We describe a method to genetically modify primary human T cells with a transgene using the non-viral piggyBac transposon system. T cells modified to using the piggyBac transposon system exhibit stable transgene expression.

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Clinical Skills

COVID-19 / Coronavirus Outbreak: A Rapidly Deployable Medical Facility Optimized for Epidemics (Smart Pod)
Elena V. Petrova 1,2, Huan (Teena) Xu 3, Brodus A. Franklin 1, Laila E. Woc-Colburn 3, Sharmila Anandasabapathy 1,2
1Baylor Global Health, Baylor College of Medicine, 2Department of Medicine-Gastroenterology, Baylor College of Medicine, 3Department of Medicine-Infection Disease, Baylor College of Medicine

COVID-19 / Coronavirus Outbreak: A Rapidly Deployable Medical Facility Optimized for Epidemics (Smart Pod)

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Clinical Skills

COVID-19 / Coronavirus Outbreak: Guidance for Hand Hygiene for Healthcare Providers to Ensure a Safe and Healthy Environment
Elena V. Petrova 1,2, Huan (Teena) Xu 3, Brodus A. Franklin 1, Laila E. Woc-Colburn 3, Sharmila Anandasabapathy 1,2
1Baylor Global Health, Baylor College of Medicine, 2Department of Medicine-Gastroenterology, Baylor College of Medicine, 3Department of Medicine-Infection Disease, Baylor College of Medicine

COVID-19 / Coronavirus Outbreak: Guidance for Hand Hygiene for Healthcare Providers to Ensure a Safe and Healthy Environment

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Clinical Skills

COVID-19 / Coronavirus Outbreak: Donning and Doffing Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for Healthcare Providers
Elena V. Petrova 1,2, Huan (Teena) Xu 3, Brodus A. Franklin 1, Laila E. Woc-Colburn 3, Sharmila Anandasabapathy 1,2
1Baylor Global Health, Baylor College of Medicine, 2Department of Medicine-Gastroenterology, Baylor College of Medicine, 3Department of Medicine-Infection Disease, Baylor College of Medicine

COVID-19 / Coronavirus Outbreak: Donning and Doffing Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for Healthcare Providers

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Clinical Skills

COVID-19 / Coronavirus Outbreak: Performing a Nasal Swab Test on Patients inside a Rapidly Deployable Facility Optimized for Epidemics
Elena V. Petrova 1,2, Huan (Teena) Xu 3, Brodus A. Franklin 1, Laila E. Woc-Colburn 3, Sharmila Anandasabapathy 1,2
1Baylor Global Health, Baylor College of Medicine, 2Department of Medicine-Gastroenterology, Baylor College of Medicine, 3Department of Medicine-Infection Disease, Baylor College of Medicine

COVID-19 / Coronavirus Outbreak: Performing a Nasal Swab Test on Patients inside a Rapidly Deployable Facility Optimized for Epidemics

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Neuroscience

Fiber-optic Implantation for Chronic Optogenetic Stimulation of Brain Tissue
Kevin Ung 1, Benjamin R. Arenkiel 1,2,3
1Department of Molecular & Human Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine (BCM), 2Department of Neuroscience, Baylor College of Medicine (BCM), 3Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute, Texas Children's Hospital

The development of optogenetics now provides the means to precisely stimulate genetically defined neurons and circuits, both in vitro and in vivo. Here we describe the assembly and implantation of a fiber optic for chronic photostimulation of brain tissue.

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Neuroscience

Preparation of Primary Neurons for Visualizing Neurites in a Frozen-hydrated State Using Cryo-Electron Tomography
Sarah H. Shahmoradian 1, Mauricio R. Galiano 2, Chengbiao Wu 3, Shurui Chen 4, Matthew N. Rasband 2, William C. Mobley 3, Wah Chiu 4
1Department of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics, Baylor College of Medicine, 2Department of Neuroscience, Baylor College of Medicine, 3Department of Neuroscience, University of California at San Diego, 4National Center for Macromolecular Imaging, Verna and Marrs McLean Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Baylor College of Medicine

To preserve neuronal processes for ultrastructural analysis, we describe a protocol for plating of primary neurons on electron microscopy grids followed by flash freezing, yielding samples suspended in a layer of vitreous ice. These samples can be examined with a cryo-electron microscope to visualize structures at the nanometer scale.

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Bioengineering

Diagnosis of Neoplasia in Barrett’s Esophagus using Vital-dye Enhanced Fluorescence Imaging
Daniel P. Perl 1, Neil Parikh 1, Shannon Chang 1, Paul Peng 1, Nadhi Thekkek 3, Michelle H. Lee 1, Alexandros D. Polydorides 2, Josephine Mitcham 1, Rebecca Richards-Kortum 3, Sharmila Anandasabapathy 1
1Department of Gastroenterology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, 2Department of Pathology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, 3Department of Bioengineering, Rice University

Vital-dye enhanced fluorescence imaging (VFI) is a novel in vivo technique that combines high-resolution epithelial imaging with exogenous topical fluorescent contrast to highlight glandular morphology and delineate neoplasia (high grade dysplasia and cancer) in the distal esophagus.

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Medicine

Assessing Phagocytic Clearance of Cell Death in Experimental Stroke by Ligatable Fluorescent Probes
Candace L. Minchew 1,2, Vladimir V. Didenko 1,2
1Baylor College of Medicine, 2Michael E. DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center

We present a new fluorescence technique for selective in situ labeling of active phagocytic cells, which clear off cell corpses in stroke. The approach is important for assessing brain reaction to ischemia because only a small proportion of phagocytes present in ischemic brain participate in clearance of cell death.

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Medicine

Sequential In vivo Imaging of Osteogenic Stem/Progenitor Cells During Fracture Repair
Dongsu Park 1, Joel A. Spencer 2, Charles P. Lin 2, David T. Scadden 1
1Center for Regenerative Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Stem Cell Institute, 2Wellman Center for Photomedicine and Center for Systems Biology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School

Quantitative measurement of bone progenitor function in fracture healing requires high resolution serial imaging technology. Here, protocols are provided for using intravital microscopy and osteo-lineage tracking to sequentially image and quantify the migration, proliferation and differentiation of endogenous osteogenic stem/progenitor cells in the process of repairing bone fracture.

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Medicine

Network Analysis of the Default Mode Network Using Functional Connectivity MRI in Temporal Lobe Epilepsy
Zulfi Haneef 1,2, Agatha Lenartowicz 3, Hsiang J. Yeh 4, Jerome Engel Jr. 4, John M. Stern 4
1Department of Neurology, Baylor College of Medicine, 2Neurology Care Line, Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center, 3Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, University of California, Los Angeles, 4Department of Neurology, University of California, Los Angeles

The Default Mode Network (DMN) in Temporal Lobe Epilepsy (TLE) is analyzed in the resting state of the brain using seed-based functional connectivity MRI (fcMRI).

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Medicine

Implantation of Total Artificial Heart in Congenital Heart Disease
Iki Adachi 1,2, David S. L. Morales 3
1Congenital Heart Surgery, Texas Children's Hospital, 2Michael E. DeBakey Department of Surgery, Baylor College of Medicine, 3Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, The University of Cincinnati College of Medicine

This is a case report of a patient with congenitally corrected transposition of the great arteries (CCTGA) who received a total artificial heart (TAH) as a bridge to heart transplant. The TAH was successfully implanted with modifications to accommodate the patient's congenitally malformed heart.

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Biology

Measurement of Heme Synthesis Levels in Mammalian Cells
Jagmohan Hooda 1, Maksudul Alam 1, Li Zhang 1
1Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, Center for Systems Biology, University of Texas at Dallas

Altered intracellular heme levels are associated with common diseases such as cancer. Thus, there is a need to measure heme biosynthesis levels in diverse cells. The goal of this protocol is to provide a fast and sensitive method to measure and compare the levels of heme synthesis in different cells.

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Behavior

Topographical Estimation of Visual Population Receptive Fields by fMRI
Sangkyun Lee 1, Amalia Papanikolaou 2, Georgios A. Keliris 2,3, Stelios M. Smirnakis 1
1Department of Neuroscience and Neurology, Baylor College of Medicine, 2Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, 3Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience

It is important to obtain unbiased estimates of visual population receptive fields (pRFs) by functional magnetic resonance imaging. We use mild regularization constraints to estimate pRF topography without a-priori assumptions about pRF shape, allowing us to choose specific pRF models post-hoc. This is particularly advantageous in subjects with visual-pathway lesions.

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Neuroscience

Unilateral Pyramidotomy of the Corticospinal Tract in Rats for Assessment of Neuroplasticity-inducing Therapies
Claudia Kathe 1, Thomas H. Hutson 1, Qin Chen 2, Harold D. Shine 2, Stephen B. McMahon 1, Lawrence D. F. Moon 1
1Neurorestoration, Wolfson Centre for Age-Related Diseases, King's College London, 2Department of Neuroscience, Baylor College of Medicine

The corticospinal tract, one of the major sensorimotor tracts, can be lesioned unilaterally in the rodent brainstem in order to test neuroplasticity-inducing therapies for the central nervous system. This surgical procedure (“pyramidotomy”) and postoperative assessments are described in this protocol.

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Neuroscience

Intracerebroventricular Viral Injection of the Neonatal Mouse Brain for Persistent and Widespread Neuronal Transduction
Ji-Yoen Kim *1, Stacy D. Grunke *1, Yona Levites 2, Todd E. Golde 2, Joanna L. Jankowsky 1,3
1Department of Neuroscience, Baylor College of Medicine, 2Department of Neuroscience, Center for Translational Research in Neurodegenerative Disease, University of Florida, 3Department of Neurology and Department of Neurosurgery, Baylor College of Medicine

Here we demonstrate a technique for widespread neuronal transduction by intraventricular injection of adeno-associated virus into the neonatal mouse brain. This method provides a rapid and easy way to attain lifelong expression of virally-delivered transgenes.

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Neuroscience

Real-time Imaging of Axonal Transport of Quantum Dot-labeled BDNF in Primary Neurons
Xiaobei Zhao 1, Yue Zhou 2, April M. Weissmiller 1, Matthew L. Pearn 3,4, William C. Mobley 1, Chengbiao Wu 1
1Department of Neurosciences, University of California, San Diego, 2School of Biomedical Engineering and Med-X Research Institute, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 3Department of Anesthesiology, University of California, San Diego, 4VA San Diego Healthcare System

Axonal transport of BDNF, a neurotrophic factor, is critical for the survival and function of several neuronal populations. Some degenerative disorders are marked by disruption of axonal structure and function. We demonstrated the techniques used to examine live trafficking of QD-BDNF in microfluidic chambers using primary neurons.

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Medicine

The In Ovo Chick Chorioallantoic Membrane (CAM) Assay as an Efficient Xenograft Model of Hepatocellular Carcinoma
Michael Li 1,2, Ravi R. Pathak 5, Esther Lopez-Rivera 3, Scott L. Friedman 1, Julio A. Aguirre-Ghiso 4, Andrew G. Sikora 5
1Department of Medicine, Division of Liver Diseases, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, 2Department of Otolaryngology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, 3Division of Nephrology, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, 4Departments of Medicine, Hematology and Medical Oncology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, 5Bobby R. Alford Department of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery, Baylor College of Medicine

The chick chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) is immunodeficient and highly vascularized, making it a natural in vivo model of tumor growth and angiogenesis. In this protocol, we describe a reliable method of growing three-dimensional, vascularized hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) tumors using the CAM assay.

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Medicine

Establishment of Human Epithelial Enteroids and Colonoids from Whole Tissue and Biopsy
Maxime M. Mahe 1, Nambirajan Sundaram 1, Carey L. Watson 1, Noah F. Shroyer 2, Michael A. Helmrath 1
1Department of Pediatric General and Thoracic Surgery, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, 2Department of Medicine, Section of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Baylor College of Medicine

We describe a method to establish human enteroids from small intestinal crypts and colonoids from colon crypts collected from both surgical tissue and biopsies. In this methodological article, we present the culture modalities that are essential for the successful growth and maintenance of human enteroids and colonoids.

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Immunology and Infection

Super-resolution Imaging of the Natural Killer Cell Immunological Synapse on a Glass-supported Planar Lipid Bilayer
Peilin Zheng *1,2, Grant Bertolet *1,2,3, Yuhui Chen 1,2, Shengjian Huang 1,2, Dongfang Liu 1,2,3
1Center for Human Immunobiology, Texas Children's Hospital, 2Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, 3Department of Pathology and Immunology, Baylor College of Medicine

We describe here a combination of the glass-supported lipid bilayer technique of forming immunological synapses with the super-resolution imaging technique of stimulated emission depletion (STED) microscopy. The goal of this protocol is to provide users with the instructions necessary to successfully carry out these two techniques.

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Chemistry

Flow-pattern Guided Fabrication of High-density Barcode Antibody Microarray
Lisa S. Ramirez 1,2, Jun Wang 1,2
1Department of Chemistry, University at Albany, State University of New York, 2Multiplex Biotechnology Laboratory, Cancer Research Center

This protocol outlines the fabrication of a large-scale, multiplexed two-dimensional DNA or antibody array, with potential applications in cell signaling studies and biomarker detection.

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Cancer Research

Intra-iliac Artery Injection for Efficient and Selective Modeling of Microscopic Bone Metastasis
Cuijuan Yu 1,2, Hai Wang 1,2, Aaron Muscarella 1,2, Amit Goldstein 1,2, Huan-Chang Zeng 3, Yangjin Bae 4, Brendan H. I. Lee 4, Xiang H.-F. Zhang 1,2,5,6
1Lester and Sue Smith Breast Center, Baylor College of Medicine, 2Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Baylor College of Medicine, 3Graduate Program in Developmental Biology, Baylor College of Medicine, 4Department of Molecular and Human Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, 5McNair Medical Institute, Baylor College of Medicine, 6Dan L. Duncan Cancer Center, Baylor College of Medicine

This manuscript provides the detailed procedure of intra-iliac artery (IIA) injection, a technique to deliver cancer cells specifically to hind limb tissues including bones to establish experimental bone metastases. Although initially established with breast tumor models, this protocol can be easily extended to other cancer types.

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Developmental Biology

Isolation of Murine Embryonic Hemogenic Endothelial Cells
Jennifer S. Fang *1, Emily C. Gritz *2, Kathrina L. Marcelo 3, Karen K. Hirschi 1
1Departments of Medicine, Genetics and Biomedical Engineering, Yale Cardiovascular Research Center, Vascular Biology and Therapeutics Program, Yale Stem Cell Center, Yale University School of Medicine, 2Department of Pediatrics, Section of Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine, Yale University School of Medicine, 3Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Baylor College of Medicine

Hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPC) derive from specialized (hemogenic) endothelial cells during development, yet little is known about the process by which some endothelial cells specify to become blood forming. We demonstrate a flow-cytometry based method allowing simultaneous isolation of hemogenic endothelial cells and HSPC from murine embryonic tissues.

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Immunology and Infection

Retroviral Transduction of Bone Marrow Progenitor Cells to Generate T-cell Receptor Retrogenic Mice
Thomas Lee 1, Ivan Shevchenko 1, Maran L. Sprouse 1, Maria Bettini 1, Matthew L. Bettini 1
1Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine

We present a rapid and flexible protocol for a single T cell receptor (TCR) retroviral-based in vivo expression system. Retroviral vectors are used to transduce bone marrow progenitor cells to study T cell development and function of a single TCR in vivo as an alternative to TCR transgenic mice.

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Medicine

Exergaming in Older People Living with HIV Improves Balance, Mobility and Ameliorates Some Aspects of Frailty
Suhitha Veeravelli 1, Bijan Najafi 3, Ivan Marin 3, Fernando Blumenkron 2, Shannon Smith 2, Stephen A. Klotz 2
1Department of Surgery, Interdisciplinary Consortium on Advanced Motion Performance (iCAMP), College of Medicine, University of Arizona, 2Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Disease, College of Medicine, University of Arizona, 3Interdisciplinary Consortium on Advanced Motion Performance (iCAMP), Division of Vascular Surgery and Endovascular Therapy, Michael E. DeBakey Department of Surgery, Baylor College of Medicine

Persons infected with HIV are often frail, depressed and live a sedentary lifestyle for which conventional exercise is too taxing. Here, we present an exercise protocol that ameliorates aspects of frailty in HIV-infected persons. An exergame integrating cognitive control was developed using biosensors that measured balance, weight-shifting and obstacle crossing.

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Neuroscience

Patch Clamp Recording of Starburst Amacrine Cells in a Flat-mount Preparation of Deafferentated Mouse Retina
Hung-Ya Tu 1, Chih-Chun Hsu 1,2, Yu-Jiun Chen 1, Ching-Kang Chen 1,2,3
1Department of Ophthalmology, Baylor College of Medicine, 2Department of Neuroscience, Baylor College of Medicine, 3Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Baylor College of Medicine

This protocol demonstrates how to perform whole-cell patch clamp recording on retinal neurons from a flat-mount preparation.

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JoVE Core

Spatial and Temporal Analysis of Active ERK in the C. elegans Germline
Amanda L. Gervaise 1, Swathi Arur 1,2
1Program in Developmental Biology, Baylor College of Medicine, 2Department of Genetics, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center

We present an immunofluorescence imaging-based method for spatial and temporal localization of active ERK in the dissected C. elegans gonad. The protocol described here can be adapted for visualization of any signaling or structural protein in the C. elegans gonad, provided a suitable antibody reagent is available.

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Medicine

Murine Echocardiography of Left Atrium, Aorta, and Pulmonary Artery
Alejandro Granillo 1, Celia A Pena 1, Thuy Pham 1, Lavannya M Pandit 2, George E. Taffet 1
1Huffington Center on Aging, Baylor College of Medicine, 2Pulmonary/Critical Care/Sleep Medicine, Michael E. DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center

The following protocol describes the methodology for the acquisition and analysis of echocardiographic images used to obtain the Left Atrial Volume (LAV), Aorta (Ao) diameter, and Pulmonary Artery (PA) diameter in mice. This technique is a non-invasive, non-terminal procedure that allows assessment of the cardiopulmonary function.

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Immunology and Infection

Streamlined Single Cell TCR Isolation and Generation of Retroviral Vectors for In Vitro and In Vivo Expression of Human TCRs
Maran L. Sprouse 1, Gabriele Blahnik 2, Thomas Lee 1, Natalie Tully 1, Pinaki Benarjee 3, Eddie A. James 2, Maria J. Redondo 4, Matthew L. Bettini 1, Maria Bettini 1
1Department of Pediatrics, Section of Diabetes and Endocrinology, McNair Medical Institute, Baylor College of Medicine, Texas Children's Hospital, 2Benaroya Research Institute at Virginia Mason, 3Center for Human Immunobiology, Baylor College of Medicine, Texas Children's Hospital, 4Department of Pediatrics, Section of Diabetes and Endocrinology, Baylor College of Medicine, Texas Children's Hospital

The current protocol combines single cell paired human TCR alpha and beta chain sequencing with streamlined generation of retroviral vectors compatible with in vitro and in vivo TCR expression.

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Medicine

Semi-automated Analysis of Mouse Skeletal Muscle Morphology and Fiber-type Composition
Sidharth Tyagi 1, Donald Beqollari 1, Chang Seok Lee 2, Lori A. Walker 1, Roger A. Bannister 1
1Department of Medicine-Cardiology Division, University of Colorado School of Medicine, 2Department of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics, Baylor College of Medicine

Immunohistochemical staining of myosin heavy chain isoforms has emerged as the state-of-the-art discriminator of skeletal muscle fiber-type (i.e., type I, type IIA, type IIX, type IIB). Here, we present a staining protocol along with a novel semi-automated algorithm that facilitates rapid assessment of fiber-type and fiber morphology.

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Behavior

Profiling Anti-Neu5Gc IgG in Human Sera with a Sialoglycan Microarray Assay
Shani Leviatan Ben-Arye 1, Hai Yu 2, Xi Chen 2, Vered Padler-Karavani 1
1Department of Cell Research and Immunology, Tel Aviv University, 2Department of Chemistry, University of California-Davis

A sialoglycan microarray assay can be used to evaluate anti-Neu5Gc antibodies in human sera, making it a potential high-throughput diagnostic assay for cancer and other chronic inflammation-mediated human diseases.

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Developmental Biology

The C. elegans Intestine As a Model for Intercellular Lumen Morphogenesis and In Vivo Polarized Membrane Biogenesis at the Single-cell Level: Labeling by Antibody Staining, RNAi Loss-of-function Analysis and Imaging
Nan Zhang 1,2, Liakot A Khan 1, Edward Membreno 1, Gholamali Jafari 1, Siyang Yan 1, Hongjie Zhang 1,3, Verena Gobel 1
1Mucosal Immunology and Biology Research Center, Developmental Biology and Genetics Core, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 2College of Life Sciences, Jilin University, 3Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Macau

The transparent C. elegans intestine can serve as an "in vivo tissue chamber" for studying apicobasal membrane and lumen biogenesis at the single-cell and subcellular level during multicellular tubulogenesis. This protocol describes how to combine standard labeling, loss-of-function genetic/RNAi and microscopic approaches to dissect these processes on a molecular level.

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Developmental Biology

The C. elegans Excretory Canal as a Model for Intracellular Lumen Morphogenesis and In Vivo Polarized Membrane Biogenesis in a Single Cell: labeling by GFP-fusions, RNAi Interaction Screen and Imaging
Nan Zhang 1,2, Edward Membreno 1, Susan Raj 1, Hongjie Zhang 1,3, Liakot A Khan 1, Verena Gobel 1
1Mucosal Immunology and Biology Research Center, Developmental Biology and Genetics Core, Massachusetts General Hospital for Children, Harvard Medical School, 2College of Life Sciences, Jilin University, 3Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Macau

The C. elegans excretory canal is a unique single-cell model for the visual in vivo analysis of de novo polarized membrane biogenesis. This protocol describes a combination of standard genetic/RNAi and imaging approaches, adaptable for the identification and characterization of molecules directing unicellular tubulogenesis, and apical membrane and lumen biogenesis.

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Developmental Biology

A Novel Use of Three-dimensional High-frequency Ultrasonography for Early Pregnancy Characterization in the Mouse
Mary C. Peavey 1,4, Corey L. Reynolds 2, Maria M. Szwarc 2, William E. Gibbons 1, Cecilia T. Valdes 1, Francesco J. DeMayo *3, John P. Lydon *4
1Devision of Repreoductive Endocrinology and Infertility, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Baylor College of Medicine, 2Mouse Phenotyping Core, Baylor College of Medicine, 3Reproductive and Developmental Biology Laboratory, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, 4Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Baylor College of Medicine

Mice are widely used to study gestational biology. However, pregnancy termination is required for such studies which precludes longitudinal investigations and necessitates the use of large numbers of animals. Therefore, we describe a non-invasive technique of high-frequency ultrasonography for early detection and monitoring of post-implantation events in the pregnant mouse.

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Medicine

Construction and Evaluation of a Murine Calvarial Osteolysis Model by Exposure to CoCrMo Particles in Aseptic Loosening
Hui Jiang *1, Yicun Wang *1, Zhantao Deng *1,2,3, Jiewen Jin 2,3, Jia Meng 1, Shuo Chen 1, Jun Wang 1, Yang Qiu 1, Ting Guo 1, Jianning Zhao 1
1Department of Orthopedics, Jinling Hospital, School of Medicine, Nanjing University, 2Center for Translational Medicine, Nanjing University Medical School, 3Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Molecular Medicine, Nanjing University Medical School

This manuscript describes a murine calvarial osteolysis model by exposure to CoCrMo particles, which constitutes an ideal animal model for assessing the interactions between wear particles and various cells in aseptic loosening.

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Developmental Biology

A RANKL-based Osteoclast Culture Assay of Mouse Bone Marrow to Investigate the Role of mTORC1 in Osteoclast Formation
Qinggang Dai *1, Yujiao Han *2, Furong Xie *1, Xuhui Ma 3, Zhan Xu 2, Xiao Liu 1, Weiguo Zou 2, Jun Wang 1
1Department of Pediatric Dentistry, Ninth People's Hospital, Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Stomatology & Shanghai Research Institute of Stomatology, National Clinical Research Center of Stomatology, 2State Key Laboratory of Cell Biology, CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Cell Science, Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, 3Department of Oral and Maxillofacial-Head and Neck Oncology, Ninth People's Hospital, Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine

This manuscript describes a protocol to isolate and culture osteoclasts in vitro from mouse bone marrow, and to study the role of the mammalian/mechanistic target of rapamycin complex 1 in osteoclast formation.

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JoVE Journal

An Array-based Comparative Genomic Hybridization Platform for Efficient Detection of Copy Number Variations in Fast Neutron-induced Medicago truncatula Mutants
Yuhui Chen 1, Xianfu Wang 2, Shunfei Lu 3, Hongcheng Wang 2, Shibo Li 2, Rujin Chen 1
1Laboratory of Plant Genetics and Development, Noble Research Institute, 2Genetics Laboratory, University of Oklahoma Health Science Center, 3Medicine and Health School, Li Shui University

This protocol provides experimental steps and information about reagents, equipment, and analysis tools for researchers who are interested in carrying out whole genome array-based comparative genomic hybridization (CGH) analysis of copy number variations in plants.

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Chemistry

Fabrication of Spherical and Worm-shaped Micellar Nanocrystals by Combining Electrospray, Self-assembly, and Solvent-based Structure Control
Xinyi Ding 1,2,3, Yuxiang Sun 1,2,3, Yanming Chen 1,2,3, Wanchuan Ding 1,2,3, Steven Emory 1,2,3,4, Tianhao Li 1,2,3, Zixing Xu 1,2,3, Ning Han 1,2,3, Jun Wang 1,2,3, Gang Ruan 1,2,3
1Department of Biomedical Engineering, College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Nanjing University, 2Institute of Materials Engineering, College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Nanjing University, 3Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemistry for Life Sciences, Nanjing University, 4Department of Chemistry, Western Washington University

The present work describes a method to fabricate micellar nanocrystals, an emerging major class of nanobiomaterials. This method combines top-down electrospray, bottom-up self-assembly, and solvent-based structure control. The fabrication method is largely continuous, can produce high quality products, and possesses an inexpensive means of structure control.

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Developmental Biology

Cell Aggregation Assays to Evaluate the Binding of the Drosophila Notch with Trans-Ligands and its Inhibition by Cis-Ligands
Ashutosh Pandey 1, Hamed Jafar-Nejad 1,2
1Department of Molecular and Human Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, 2Program in Developmental Biology, Baylor College of Medicine

Complexity of in vivo systems makes it difficult to distinguish between the activation and inhibition of Notch receptor by trans- and cis-ligands, respectively. Here, we present a protocol based on in vitro cell-aggregation assays for qualitative and semi-quantitative evaluation of the binding of Drosophila Notch to trans-ligands vs cis-ligands.

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Biology

A Simple High Efficiency Protocol for Pancreatic Islet Isolation from Mice
Daniel Villarreal 1, Geetali Pradhan 2, Chia-Shan Wu 1,2, Clinton D Allred 1, Shaodong Guo 1, Yuxiang Sun 1,2
1Department of Nutrition and Food Science, Texas A&M University, 2Children's Nutrition Research Center, Baylor College of Medicine

This islet isolation protocol described a novel route of collagenase injection to digest the exocrine tissue and a simplified gradient procedure to purify the islets from mice. It involves enzymatic digestion, gradient separation/purification, and islet hand-picking. Successful isolation can yield 250–350 high quality and fully functional islets per mouse.

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Neuroscience

An Objective and Reproducible Test of Olfactory Learning and Discrimination in Mice
Gary Liu *1,2, Jay M. Patel *2,3, Burak Tepe 1, Cynthia K. McClard 2,4, Jessica Swanson 4, Kathleen B. Quast 4, Benjamin R. Arenkiel 1,3,4,5
1Program in Developmental Biology, Baylor College of Medicine, 2Medical Scientist Training Program, Baylor College of Medicine, 3Department of Neuroscience, Baylor College of Medicine, 4Department of Molecular and Human Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, 5Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute at Texas Children's Hospital

Here, we train mice on an associative learning task to test odor discrimination. This protocol also allows for studies on learning-induced structural changes in the brain.

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Genetics

Highly Efficient Gene Disruption of Murine and Human Hematopoietic Progenitor Cells by CRISPR/Cas9
Lorenzo Brunetti *1,2,3, Michael C. Gundry *1,2,4, Ayumi Kitano 4, Daisuke Nakada 1,2,4, Margaret A. Goodell 1,2,4,5
1Stem Cells & Regenerative Medicine Center, Baylor College of Medicine, 2Center for Cell and Gene Therapy, Baylor College of Medicine, 3Centro di Ricerca Emato-Oncologica (CREO), University of Perugia, 4Department of Molecular & Human Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, 5Texas Children's Hospital & Houston Methodist Hospital

A protocol for fast CRISPR/Cas9-mediated gene disruption in mouse and human primary hematopoietic cells is described in this article. Cas9-sgRNA ribonucleoproteins are introduced via electroporation with sgRNAs generated through in vitro transcription and commercial Cas9. High editing efficiencies are achieved with limited time and financial cost.

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Biochemistry

Lighting Up the Pathways to Caspase Activation Using Bimolecular Fluorescence Complementation
Chloé I Charendoff 1, Lisa Bouchier-Hayes 2
1Department of Pediatrics, Division of Hematology-Oncology, Baylor College of Medicine, 2Department of Pediatrics, Division of Hematology-Oncology and Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Baylor College of Medicine

This protocol describes caspase Bimolecular Fluorescence Complementation (BiFC); an imaging-based method that can be used to visualize induced proximity of initiator caspases, which is the first step in their activation.

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Immunology and Infection

A Murine Pancreatic Islet Cell-based Screening for Diabetogenic Environmental Chemicals
Jingshu Chen *2, Lei Zhong *1, Jing Wu 1, Sui Ke 2, Benjamin Morpurgo 3, Andrei Golovko 3, Nengtai Ouyang 4, Yuxiang Sun 2, Shaodong Guo 2, Yanan Tian 1,2
1Hunan Engineering Technology Research Center of Featured Aquatic Resources Utilization, Hunan Agriculture University, 2Texas A&M University, 3Texas A&M Institute for Genomic Medicine, 4Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hospital

Here we present a protocol to isolate mouse pancreatic islet cells for screening the ROS inductions by the xenobiotics in order to identify the potential diabetogenic xenobiotic chemicals.

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Neuroscience

Construction of an Improved Multi-Tetrode Hyperdrive for Large-Scale Neural Recording in Behaving Rats
Li Lu 1, Briana Popeney 1, J. David Dickman 1, Dora E. Angelaki 1
1Department of Neuroscience, Baylor College of Medicine

We present the construction of a 3D-printable hyperdrive with eighteen independently adjustable tetrodes. The hyperdrive is designed to record brain activity in freely behaving rats over a period of several weeks.

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Medicine

Application of End-to-end Anastomosis in Robotic Central Pancreatectomy
Rong Liu *1, Zi-Zheng Wang *1, Yuan-Xing Gao 1, Yong Xu 1
1Department of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgical Oncology, Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) General Hospital

The robotic central pancreatectomy with end-to-end anastomosis is feasible and safe for tumor in the pancreatic neck and proximal portion of pancreatic body. The operative techniques of this operation are presented.

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Developmental Biology

Generation of Scaffold-free, Three-dimensional Insulin Expressing Pancreatoids from Mouse Pancreatic Progenitors In Vitro
Marissa A. Scavuzzo 1, Jessica Teaw 2,3,4, Diane Yang 2,3,4, Malgorzata Borowiak 1,2,3,4,5
1Program in Developmental Biology, Baylor College of Medicine, 2Center for Cell and Gene Therapy, Texas Children's Hospital, and Houston Methodist Hospital, Baylor College of Medicine, 3Molecular and Cellular Biology Department, Baylor College of Medicine, 4Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine Center, Baylor College of Medicine, 5McNair Medical Institute, Baylor College of Medicine

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

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Cancer Research

Enrichment and Characterization of the Tumor Immune and Non-immune Microenvironments in Established Subcutaneous Murine Tumors
Jared M. Newton *1,2, Aurelie Hanoteau *1, Andrew G. Sikora 1
1Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Baylor College of Medicine, 2Interdepartmental Graduate Program in Translational Biology and Molecular Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine

Here we describe a method to separate and enrich components of the tumor immune and non-immune microenvironment in established subcutaneous tumors. This technique allows for the separate analysis of tumor immune infiltrate and non-immune tumor fractions which can permit comprehensive characterization of the tumor immune microenvironment.

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Neuroscience

Quantitative Cell Biology of Neurodegeneration in Drosophila Through Unbiased Analysis of Fluorescently Tagged Proteins Using ImageJ
Jennifer M. Brazill 1, Yi Zhu 1, Chong Li 1, R. Grace Zhai 1,2
1Department of Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, 2School of Pharmacy, Key Laboratory of Molecular Pharmacology and Drug Evaluation (Yantai University), Ministry of Education, Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Drug Delivery System and Biotech Drugs in Universities of Shandong, Yantai University

We have developed a simple and adaptable workflow to extract quantitative data from fluorescence-imaging-based cell biological studies of protein aggregation and autophagic flux in the central nervous system of Drosophila models of neurodegeneration.

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Genetics

Culturing and Manipulation of O9-1 Neural Crest Cells
Bao H. Nguyen 1, Mamoru Ishii 2, Robert E. Maxson 2, Jun Wang 1
1Molecular Physiology and Biophysics, Baylor College of Medicine, 2Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Southern California

O9-1 is a multipotent mouse neural crest cell line. Here we describe detailed step-by-step protocols for culturing O9-1 cells, differentiating O9-1 cells into specific cell types, and genetically manipulating O9-1 cells by using siRNA-mediated knockdown or CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing.

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Remote Laboratory Management for Respiratory Virus Diagnostics
Elena V. Petrova 1, Vasanthi Avadhanula 2, Sarah Michel 1, Karen E. Gincoo 2, Pedro A. Piedra 2, Sharmila Anandasabapathy 1
1Baylor Global Health, Department of Medicine, Division of Gastroenterology, Baylor College of Medicine, 2Department of Molecular Virology and Microbiology, Baylor College of Medicine

A rapidly-deployable, off-grid laboratory has been designed and built for remote, resource-constrained global settings. The features and critical aspects of the logistically-enhanced, expandable, multifunctional laboratory modules are explored. A checklist for basic laboratory workflow and a protocol for a respiratory viral diagnostic test are developed and presented.

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Genetics

Determining the Likelihood of Variant Pathogenicity Using Amino Acid-level Signal-to-Noise Analysis of Genetic Variation
Edward G Jones 1, Andrew P Landstrom 2
1Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, 2Department of Pediatrics, Division of Cardiology, Duke University School of Medicine

Amino acid-level signal-to-noise analysis determines the prevalence of genetic variation at a given amino acid position normalized to background genetic variation of a given population. This allows for identification of variant "hotspots" within a protein sequence (signal) that rises above the frequency of rare variants found in a population (noise).

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Environment

A High-throughput Assay for the Prediction of Chemical Toxicity by Automated Phenotypic Profiling of Caenorhabditis elegans
Shan Gao *1, Weiyang Chen *2, Nan Zhang 1, Chi Xu 3, Haiming Jing 1,4, Wenjing Zhang 1,4, Gaochao Han 1,4, Matthew Flavel 5, Markandeya Jois 5, Yingxin Zeng 1, Jing-Dong J. Han 3, Bo Xian 3, Guojun Li 1,4
1Beijing Key Laboratory of Diagnostic and Traceability Technologies for Food Poisoning, Beijing Center for Disease Prevention and Control/Beijing Center of Preventive Medicine Research, China, 2College of Computer Science and Technology, Qilu University of Technology(Shandong Academy of Sciences), China, 3Key Laboratory of Computational Biology, CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Cell Science, Collaborative Innovation Center for Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences-Max Planck Partner Institute for Computational Biology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China, 4Beijing Key Laboratory of Environmental Toxicology, School of Public Health, Capital Medical University, China, 5School of Life Sciences, La Trobe University, Australia

A quantitative method has been developed to identify and predict the acute toxicity of chemicals by automatically analyzing the phenotypic profiling of Caenorhabditis elegans. This protocol describes how to treat worms with chemicals in a 384-well plate, capture videos, and quantify toxicological related phenotypes.

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Medicine

Remote Laboratory Management: Respiratory Virus Diagnostics
Elena V. Petrova 1,2, Vasanthi Avadhanula 3, Sarah Michel 1, Karen E. Gincoo 3, Pedro A. Piedra 3, Sharmila Anandasabapathy 1,2
1Baylor Global Health, Baylor College of Medicine, 2Department of Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine, 3Department of Molecular Virology and Microbiology, Baylor College of Medicine

A rapidly-deployable, off-grid laboratory has been designed and built for remote, resource-constrained global settings. The features and critical aspects of the logistically-enhanced, expandable, multifunctional laboratory modules are explored. A checklist for a basic laboratory workflow and a protocol for a respiratory viral diagnostic test are developed and presented.

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JoVE Journal

Navigating MARRVEL, a Web-Based Tool that Integrates Human Genomics and Model Organism Genetics Information
Julia Wang 1,2, Zhandong Liu 3,4, Hugo J. Bellen 1,4,5,6,7, Shinya Yamamoto 1,4,5,6
1Program in Developmental Biology, Baylor College of Medicine, 2Medical Scientist Training Program, Baylor College of Medicine, 3Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, 4Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute, Texas Children's Hospital, 5Department of Molecular and Human Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, 6Department of Neuroscience, Baylor College of Medicine, 7Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Baylor College of Medicine

Here, we present a protocol to access and analyze many human and model organism databases efficiently. This protocol demonstrates the use of MARRVEL to analyze candidate disease-causing variants identified from next-generation sequencing efforts.

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Behavior

Application of 3D Printing in the Construction of Burr Hole Ring for Deep Brain Stimulation Implants
Jiazhi Chen *1,2, Xinyu Chen *3, Siyuan Lv 2, Yuzhen Zhang 1, Hao Long 1, Kaijun Yang 1, Songtao Qi 1, Wangming Zhang 2, Jun Wang 1
1Department of Neurosurgery, Nanfang Hospital, Southern Medical University, 2Department of Neurosurgery, Zhujiang Hospital, Southern Medical University, 3Faculty of Brain Sciences, University of College London

Here, we present a protocol to demonstrate 3D printing in the construction of deep brain stimulation implants.

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Developmental Biology

Determining Bile Duct Density in the Mouse Liver
Joshua M. Adams 1,2,3, Hamed Jafar-Nejad 1,3
1Program in Developmental Biology, Baylor College of Medicine, 2Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP), Baylor College of Medicine, 3Department of Molecular and Human Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine

We present a rather simple and sensitive method for accurate quantification of bile duct density in the mouse liver. This method can aid in determining the effects of genetic and environmental modifiers and the effectiveness of potential therapies in mouse models of biliary diseases.

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Genetics

In Vivo Functional Study of Disease-associated Rare Human Variants Using Drosophila
J. Michael Harnish *1, Samantha L. Deal *2, Hsiao-Tuan Chao 1,3,4,5, Michael F. Wangler 1,2,4, Shinya Yamamoto 1,2,4,5
1Department of Molecular and Human Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, 2Program in Developmental Biology, Baylor College of Medicine, 3Department of Pediatrics, Section of Neurology and Developmental Neuroscience, Baylor College of Medicine, 4Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute, Texas Children's Hospital, 5Department of Neuroscience, Baylor College of Medicine

The goal of this protocol is to outline the design and performance of in vivo experiments in Drosophila melanogaster to assess the functional consequences of rare gene variants associated with human diseases.

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Immunology and Infection

Induced Differentiation of M Cell-like Cells in Human Stem Cell-derived Ileal Enteroid Monolayers
Alyssa C. Fasciano 1, Sarah E. Blutt 2, Mary K. Estes 2, Joan Mecsas 3
1Program in Immunology, Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences, 2Department of Molecular Virology and Microbiology, Baylor College of Medicine, 3Department of Molecular Biology and Microbiology, Tufts University

This protocol describes how to induce the differentiation of M cells in human stem cell-derived ileal monolayers and methods to assess their development.

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Immunology and Infection

High-Efficiency Generation of Antigen-Specific Primary Mouse Cytotoxic T Cells for Functional Testing in an Autoimmune Diabetes Model
Howard W. Davidson 1, Joseph Ray Cepeda 2, Nitin S. Sekhar 2, Junying Han 2, Ling Gao 3, Tomasz Sosinowski 1, Li Zhang 2
1Barbara Davis Center for Childhood Diabetes, University of Colorado Denver, 2Department of Medicine, Endocrinology, Diabetes & Metabolism, Baylor College of Medicine, 3Scientific Center, Shandong Provincial Hospital affiliated to Shandong University

This article describes a protocol for the generation of antigen-specific CD8 T cells, and their expansion in vitro, with the aim of yielding high numbers of functional T cells for use in vitro and in vivo.

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Medicine

Characterization of Sickling During Controlled Automated Deoxygenation with Oxygen Gradient Ektacytometry
Minke A.E. Rab 1,2, Brigitte A. van Oirschot 1, Jennifer Bos 1, Celeste K. Kanne 3, Vivien A. Sheehan 3, Eduard J. van Beers 2, Richard van Wijk 1
1Laboratory of Clinical Chemistry and Hematology, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht University, 2Van Creveldkliniek, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht University, 3Department of Pediatrics, Division of Hematology/Oncology, Baylor College of Medicine

Here, we present oxygen gradient ektacytometry, a rapid and reproducible method to measure red blood cell deformability in samples from patients with sickle cell disease under controlled deoxygenation and reoxygenation. This technique provides a way to study red blood cell sickling and to monitor sickle cell disease treatment efficacy.

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JoVE Core

International Expert Consensus and Recommendations for Neonatal Pneumothorax Ultrasound Diagnosis and Ultrasound-guided Thoracentesis Procedure
Jing Liu 1,2, Dalibor Kurepa 3, Francesco Feletti 4,5, Almudena Alonso-Ojembarrena 6, Jovan Lovrenski 7, Roberto Copetti 8, Erich Sorantin 9, Javier Rodriguez-Fanjul 10, Karishma Katti 3, Andrea Aliverti 4, Huayan Zhang 11,12, Misun Hwang 13, Tsu F. Yeh 14, Cai-Bao Hu 15, Xing Feng 16, Ru-Xin Qiu 1,2, Jing-Han Chi 17, Li-Li Shang 18, Guo-Rong Lyu 19, Shao-Zheng He 20, Yan-Fen Chai 21, Zhan-Jun Qiu 22, Hai-Ying Cao 2,23, Yue-Qiao Gao 1,2, Xiao-Ling Ren 1,2, Guo Guo 1,24, Li Zhang 1,2, Ying Liu 1,2, Wei Fu 1,2, Zu-Lin Lu 1,2, Hong-Lei Li 1,2
1Department of Neonatology and NICU, Beijing Chaoyang District Maternal and Child Healthcare Hospital, 2The National Neonatal Lung Ultrasound Training Base, 3Division of Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine, Cohen Children's Medical Center, 4Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering, Politecnico di Milano, 5Dipartimento di Diagnostica per Immagini, Ausl della Romagna, S. Maria delle Croci Hospital, 6Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Puerta del Mar University Hospital, 7Faculty of Medicine, University of Novi Sad, Serbia, Institute for Children and Adolescents Health Care of Vojvodina, 8Emergency Department, University Hospital of Cattinara, 9Division of Pediatric Radiology, Department of Radiology, Medical University Graz, 10Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, Pediatric Service Hospital Joan XXIII Tarragona, University Rovira i Virgil, 11Center for Newborn Care, Guangzhou Women and Children's Medical Center, 12Division of Neonatology, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, 13Section of Neonatal Imaging, Department of Radiology, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, 14Maternal Child Health Research institute, Taipei Medical University and China Medical University, 15Intensive Care Unit, Zhejiang Hospital, 16Department of Neonatology, Children's Hospital of Soochow University, 17Department of Neonatology and NICU, Bayi Children's Hospital Affiliated to the Seventh Medical Center of Chinese PLA General Hospital, 18Intensive Care Unit, Second Affiliated Hospital of Heilongjiang University of Chinese Medicine, 19Collaborative Innovation Center for Maternal and Infant Health Service Application Technology, Quanzhou Medical College, 20Department of Ultrasound, Second Affiliated Hospital of Fujian Medical University, 21Department of Emergency Medicine, Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, 22Department of Emergency and Critical Care Medicine, Affiliated Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, 23Department of Ultrasound, GE Healthcare, 24The Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Fifth Medical Center of Chinese PLA General Hospital

Pneumothorax is a common emergency and critical disease in newborn infants that needs rapid, clear diagnosis and timely treatment. Diagnosis and treatment based on chest X-rays are associated with delayed management and radiation damage. Lung ultrasound (US) provides useful guidance for rapid, accurate diagnosis and the precise thoracentesis of pneumothorax.

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Developmental Biology

Preparation of Small RNA Libraries for Sequencing from Early Mouse Embryos
Rachel A. Keuls 1, Ronald Parchem 1
1Development, Disease Models & Therapeutics Graduate Program, Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Department of Neuroscience, Center for Cell and Gene Therapy, Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine Center, Baylor College of Medicine

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.

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Developmental Biology

Real-Time Imaging of CCL5-Induced Migration of Periosteal Skeletal Stem Cells in Mice
Laura Ortinau 1,2, Kevin Lei 1, Youngjae Jeong 1, Dongsu Park 1,2,3
1Department of Molecular & Human Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, 2Center for Skeletal Biology, Baylor College of Medicine, 3Department of Pathology & Immunology, Baylor College of Medicine

This protocol describes the detection of CCL5-mediated periosteal skeletal stem cell migration in real-time using live animal intravital microscopy.

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Cancer Research

Orthotopic Transplantation of Breast Tumors as Preclinical Models for Breast Cancer
Xiangdong Lv *1,2,3, Lacey E. Dobrolecki *1,2,3, Yao Ding 1,2,3, Jeffrey M. Rosen 1,2,3, Michael T. Lewis 1,2,3, Xi Chen 1,2,3
1Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Baylor College of Medicine, 2Lester and Sue Smith Breast Center, Baylor College of Medicine, 3Dan L. Duncan Cancer Center, Baylor College of Medicine

Patient-derived xenograft (PDX) models and transplantable genetically engineered mouse models faithfully recapitulate human disease and are preferred models for basic and translational breast cancer research. Here, a method is described to orthotopically transplant breast tumor fragments into the mammary fat pad to study tumor biology and evaluate drug response.

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Developmental Biology

Imaging Intranuclear Actin Rods in Live Heat Stressed Drosophila Embryos
Natalie Biel 1,2, Lauren Figard 3, Anna Marie Sokac 1,2,3
1Integrative Molecular and Biomedical Sciences, Baylor College of Medicine, 2Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, School of Molecular and Cellular Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 3Verna and Marrs McLean Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Baylor College of Medicine

The goal of this protocol is to inject Rhodamine-conjugated globular actin into Drosophila embryos and image intranuclear actin rod assembly following heat stress.

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Biochemistry

Single Cell Analysis Of Transcriptionally Active Alleles By Single Molecule FISH
Ragini M. Mistry 1,2, Pankaj K. Singh 1,3, Maureen G. Mancini 1,2, Fabio Stossi 1,2, Michael A. Mancini 1,2,3,4
1GCC Center for Advanced Microscopy and Image Informatics, 2Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Baylor College of Medicine, 3Center for Translational Cancer Research, Institute of Biosciences and Technology, Texas A&M University, 4Department of Pharmacology and Chemical Biology, Baylor College of Medicine

Single molecule RNA fluorescence in situ hybridization (smFISH) is a method to accurately quantify levels and localization of specific RNAs at the single cell level. Here, we report our validated lab protocols for wet-bench processing, imaging and image analysis for single cell quantification of specific RNAs.

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Immunology and Infection

Cigarette Smoke Exposure in Mice using a Whole-Body Inhalation System
Daniel E. Morales-Mantilla 1,2, Xinyan Huang 3,7, Philip Erice 1,3, Paul Porter 4, Yun Zhang 1,5, Mary Figueroa 6, Joya Chandra 6, Katherine Y. King 2, Farrah Kheradmand 4,8, Antony Rodríguez 3,8
1Program in Immunology, Baylor College of Medicine, 2Department of Pediatrics, Section of Infectious Diseases, Baylor College of Medicine, 3Department of Medicine - Immunology Allergy and Rheumatology, Baylor College of Medicine, 4Department of Medicine, Pulmonary, Critical Care, Sleep Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine, 5Department of Pathology and Immunology, Baylor College of Medicine, 6Department of Pediatrics, Research and Department of Epigenetics and Molecular Carcinogenesis, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, 7Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, The First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, 8Center for Translational Research on Inflammatory Diseases (CTRID), Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center

This protocol demonstrates the study of the pathophysiologic effects of cigarette smoke (CS) with a whole-body inhalation (WBI) exposure system (WBIS) built in-house. This system can expose animals to CS under controlled repeatable conditions for research of CS-mediated effects on lung emphysema and hematopoiesis.

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Biology

Label-Free Imaging of Lipid Storage Dynamics in Caenorhabditis elegans using Stimulated Raman Scattering Microscopy
Ayse Sena Mutlu 1, Tao Chen 1, Dinghuan Deng 1, Meng C. Wang 1,2,3
1Huffington Center on Aging, Baylor College of Medicine, 2Department of Molecular and Human Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, 3Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Baylor College of Medicine

Stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) microscopy allows selective, label-free imaging of specific chemical moieties and it has been effectively employed to image lipid molecules in vivo. Here, we provide a brief introduction to the principle of SRS microscopy and describe methods for its use in imaging lipid storage in Caenorhabditis elegans.

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Medicine

Assessing Whole-Body Lipid-Handling Capacity in Mice
Mingyang Huang 1, Noah Mathew 1, Yi Zhu 1
1Children's Nutrition Research Center, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine

This paper provides three easy and accessible assays for assessing lipid metabolism in mice.

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Developmental Biology

Using Immunofluorescence to Detect PM2.5-induced DNA Damage in Zebrafish Embryo Hearts
Yujie Huang *1, Yizhou Tao *1, Chang Cai 1, Jin Chen 1, Cheng Ji 1, Stanley Aniagu 2, Yan Jiang 1, Tao Chen 1
1School of Public Health, Soochow University, 2Toxicology, Risk Assessment and Research Division, Texas Commission on Environmental Quality

This protocol uses an immunofluorescence assay to detect PM2.5-induced DNA damage in the dissected hearts of zebrafish embryos.

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Biology

Serial Block-Face Scanning Electron Microscopy (SBF-SEM) of Biological Tissue Samples
Justin A. Courson 1, Paul T. Landry 1, Thao Do 1, Eric Spehlmann 2, Pascal J. Lafontant 2, Nimesh Patel 1, Rolando E. Rumbaut 3,4, Alan R. Burns 1,4
1College of Optometry, University of Houston, 2Department of Biology, DePauw University, 3Center for Translational Research on Inflammatory Diseases (CTRID), Michael E. DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center, 4Children’s Nutrition Center, Baylor College of Medicine

This protocol outlines a routine method for using serial block-face scanning electron microscopy (SBF-SEM), a powerful 3D imaging technique. Successful application of SBF-SEM hinges on proper fixation and tissue staining techniques, as well as careful consideration of imaging settings. This protocol contains practical considerations for the entirety of this process.

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Biology

Isolation of Primary Rat Hepatocytes with Multiparameter Perfusion Control
Inn Chuan Ng *1, Li Zhang *2, Narelle Nichola Yi Ying Shen 3, Yun Ting Soong 4, Chan Way Ng 5, Phoebe Kang Sheing Koh 1, Yan Zhou 3, Hanry Yu 1,3,4,5,6
1Department of Physiology & The Institute for Digital Medicine (WisDM), National University of Singapore, 2College of Agriculture and Biology, Zhongkai University of Agriculture and Engineering, 3Mechanobiology Institute, National University of Singapore, 4Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, A*STAR, 5NUS Graduate School for Integrative Sciences and Engineering, 6CAMP, Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology

This protocol details the use of a special intravenous catheter, standardized sterile disposable tubing, temperature control complemented by real-time monitoring, and an alarm system for two-step collagenase perfusion procedure to improve the consistency in the viability, yield, and functionality of isolated primary rat hepatocytes.

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Cancer Research

Natural Killer (NK) and CAR-NK Cell Expansion Method using Membrane Bound-IL-21-Modified B Cell Line
Minh Ma 1,2, Saiaditya Badeti 1, James K. Kim 1, Dongfang Liu 1,3
1Department of Pathology, Immunology and Laboratory Medicine, Rutgers-New Jersey Medical School, 2Department of Microbiology, Biochemistry & Molecular Genetics, Public Health Research Institute Center, New Jersey Medical School, Rutgers University, 3Center for Immunity and Inflammation, New Jersey Medical School, Rutgers-The State University of New Jersey

Here, we present a method to expand peripheral blood natural killer (PBNK), NK cells from liver tissues, and chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-NK cells derived from peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) or cord blood (CB). This protocol demonstrates the expansion of NK and CAR-NK cells using 221-mIL-21 feeder cells in addition to the optimized purity of expanded NK cells.

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JoVE Journal

Genome-wide Analysis of Histone Modifications Distribution using the Chromatin Immunoprecipitation Sequencing Method in Magnaporthe oryzae
Zechi Wu *1, Wanyu Sun *1, Sida Zhou 1, Li Zhang 1, Xinyu Zhao 1, Yang Xu 1, Weixiang Wang 1
1Beijing Key Laboratory of New Technology in Agricultural Application, National Demonstration Center for Experimental Plant Production Education, Department of Agronomy, Beijing University of Agriculture

Here, we present a protocol to analyze the genome-wide distribution of histone modifications, which can identify new target genes in the pathogenesis of M. oryzae and other filamentous fungi.

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Neuroscience

Imaging and Quantification of Intact Neuronal Dendrites via CLARITY Tissue Clearing
Brandon T. Pekarek 1, Patrick J. Hunt 1,2, Benjamin D. W. Belfort 1,2, Gary Liu 2, Benjamin R. Arenkiel 1,3
1Department of Genetics and Genomics, Baylor College of Medicine, 2Medical Scientist Training Program, Baylor College of Medicine, 3Department of Neuroscience, Baylor College of Medicine

Neuronal dendritic morphology often underlies function. Indeed, many disease processes that affect the development of neurons manifest with a morphological phenotype. This protocol describes a simple and powerful method for analyzing intact dendritic arbors and their associated spines.

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Developmental Biology

An Optimized O9-1/Hydrogel System for Studying Mechanical Signals in Neural Crest Cells
Tram P. Le *1, Xiaolei Zhao *1, Shannon Erhardt 1,2, Jianhua Gu 3, Huie Wang 3, Tina O. Findley 1, Jun Wang 1,2
1Department of Pediatrics, McGovern Medical School, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, 2The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center UTHealth Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, 3SEM AFM Core in the Houston Methodist Hospital Research Institute

Detailed step-by-step protocols are described here for studying mechanical signals in vitro using multipotent O9-1 neural crest cells and polyacrylamide hydrogels of varying stiffness.

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Neuroscience

Inter-Brain Synchrony in Open-Ended Collaborative Learning: An fNIRS-Hyperscanning Study
Nan Zhao 1,2, Yi Zhu 1,2, Yi Hu 1,2
1School of Psychology and Cognitive Science, East China Normal University, 2Shanghai Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Crisis Intervention, East China Normal University

The protocol for conducting fNIRS hyperscanning experiments on collaborative learning dyads in a naturalistic learning environment is outlined. Further, a pipeline to analyze the Inter-Brain Synchrony (IBS) of oxygenated hemoglobin (Oxy-Hb) signals is presented.

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Developmental Biology

Generation of Naïve Blastoderm Explants from Zebrafish Embryos
Alyssa Alaniz Emig 1, Margot L. K. Williams 1
1Center for Precision Environmental Health and Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Baylor College of Medicine

Zebrafish blastoderm explants are generated by isolating embryonic cells from endogenous signaling centers within the early embryo, producing relatively naïve cell clusters easily manipulated and cultured ex vivo. This article provides instructions for making such explants and demonstrates their utility by interrogating roles for Nodal signaling during gastrulation.

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Neuroscience

How to Calculate and Validate Inter-brain Synchronization in a fNIRS Hyperscanning Study
Yinying Hu 1, Zixuan Wang 1, Bei Song 2, Yafeng Pan 3, Xiaojun Cheng 4, Yi Zhu 1, Yi Hu 1
1Institute of Brain and Education Innovation, School of Psychology and Cognitive Science, East China Normal University, 2Department of Musicology, Harbin Conservatory of Music, 3Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, 4School of Psychology, Shenzhen University

The dynamics between coupled brains of individuals have been increasingly represented by inter-brain synchronization (IBS) when they coordinate with each other, mostly using simultaneous-recording signals of brains (namely hyperscanning) with fNIRS. In fNIRS hyperscanning studies, IBS has been commonly assessed through the wavelet transform coherence (WTC) method because of its advantage on expanding time series into time-frequency space where oscillations can be seen in a highly intuitive way. The observed IBS can be further validated via the permutation-based random pairing of the trial, partner, and condition. Here, a protocol is presented to describe how to obtain brain signals via fNIRS technology, calculate IBS through the WTC method, and validate IBS by permutation in a hyperscanning study. Further, we discuss the critical issues when using the above methods, including the choice of fNIRS signals, methods of data preprocessing, and optional parameters of computations. In summary, using the WTC method and permutation is a potentially standard pipeline for analyzing IBS in fNIRS hyperscanning studies, contributing to both the reproducibility and reliability of IBS.

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Neuroscience

Free-floating Immunostaining of Mouse Brains
Longlong Tu 1, Nan Zhang 1,2,3, Kristine M Conde 1, Jonathan C Bean 1, Chunmei Wang 1, Yong Xu 1,4
1USDA/ARS Children's Nutrition Research Center, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, 2Department of Endocrinology, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, 3Hubei Provincial Clinical Research Center for Diabetes and Metabolic Disorder, 4Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Baylor College of Medicine

This protocol describes an efficient and reproducible approach for mouse brain histological studies, including perfusion, brain sectioning, free-floating immunostaining, tissue mounting, and imaging.

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Medicine

Evaluation of Hepatic Glucose Production in a Polycystic Ovary Syndrome Mouse Model
Alexandra L. Gannon 1,2, Shaji K. Chacko 3, Inka C. Didelija 3, Juan C. Marini 3,4, Chellakkan S. Blesson 1,2
1Department of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility, Baylor College of Medicine, 2Family Fertility Center, Texas Children’s Hospital, 3Children’s Nutrition Research Center, Baylor College of Medicine, 4Critical Care Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine

This study describes the direct measurement of hepatic glucose production in a polycystic ovary syndrome mouse model by using a stable isotopic glucose tracer via tail vein in both fasting and glucose-rich states in tandem.

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Medicine

An Epithelial Abrasion Model for Studying Corneal Wound Healing
Prince K. Akowuah 1, Angie De La Cruz 1, C. Wayne Smith 2, Rolando E. Rumbaut 2,3, Alan R. Burns 1,2
1College of Optometry, University of Houston, 2Children’s Nutrition Research Center, Baylor College of Medicine, 3Center for Translational Research on Inflammatory Diseases (CTRID), Michael E. DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center

Here, a protocol for creating a central corneal epithelial abrasion wound in the mouse using a trephine and a blunt golf club spud is described. This corneal wound healing model is highly reproducible and is now being used to evaluate compromised corneal wound healing in the context of diseases.

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Immunology and Infection

Visualization of Inflammatory Caspases Induced Proximity in Human Monocyte-Derived Macrophages
Beatriz E. Bolívar 1, Lisa Bouchier-Hayes 1
1Department of Pediatrics, Division of Hematology-Oncology, Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Texas Children’s Hospital William T. Shearer Center for Human Immunobiology, Baylor College of Medicine

This protocol describes the workflow to obtain monocytes-derived macrophages (MDM) from human blood samples, a simple method to efficiently introduce inflammatory caspase Bimolecular Fluorescence Complementation (BiFC) reporters into human MDM without compromising cell viability and behavior, and an imaging-based approach to measure inflammatory caspase activation in living cells.

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Medicine

Standardization and Maintenance of 3D Canine Hepatic and Intestinal Organoid Cultures for Use in Biomedical Research
Vojtech Gabriel 1, Christopher Zdyrski 1, Dipak K. Sahoo 2, Kimberly Dao 3, Agnes Bourgois-Mochel 2, Jamie Kopper 2, Xi-Lei Zeng 4, Mary K. Estes 4, Jonathan P. Mochel 1,3, Karin Allenspach 2,3
1Department of Biomedical Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, Iowa State University, 2Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, Iowa State University, 33D Health Solutions Inc., 4Department of Molecular Virology and Microbiology, Baylor College of Medicine

Experimental methods to harvest adult stem cells from canine intestinal and hepatic tissues to establish 3D organoid cultures are described. Furthermore, the laboratory techniques to ensure consistent growth and provide standard operating procedures to harvest, biobank, and revive canine intestinal and hepatic organoid cultures are discussed.

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Medicine

Estimating Bilateral Atrial Function by Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance Feature Tracking in Patients with Paroxysmal Atrial Fibrillation
Yanjing Wang 1, Hang Gao 1, Yi Li 1, Huan Sun *2, Lin Liu *1
1Radiology Department, China-Japan Union Hospital of Jilin University, 2Cardiology Department, China-Japan Union Hospital of Jilin University

The atrial function is associated with the strain and strain rate. The cardiac magnetic resonance feature tracking (CMR-FT) technique was used in this study to quantify left and right atrial global and segmental longitudinal strain and strain rate in individuals with paroxysmal atrial fibrillation.

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Biology

Lipid Supplementation for Longevity and Gene Transcriptional Analysis in Caenorhabditis elegans
Marzia Savini *1,2, Yi-Tang Lee 2,3,4, Meng C. Wang 2,4,5, Yue Zhou *2
1Graduate Program in Developmental Biology, Baylor College of Medicine, 2Huffington Center on Aging, Baylor College of Medicine, 3Integrative Program of Molecular and Biochemical Sciences, Baylor College of Medicine, 4Department of Molecular and Human Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, 5Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Baylor College of Medicine

The present protocol describes lipid supplementation methods in liquid and on-plate cultures for Caenorhabditis elegans, coupled with longitudinal studies and gene transcriptional analysis from bulk or a few worms and worm tissues.

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Biology

Intravital Microscopy to Study Platelet-Leukocyte-Endothelial Interactions in the Mouse Liver
Justin A. Courson 1,2, Kimberly W. Langlois 1,2, Fong W. Lam 1,3
1Center for Translational Research on Inflammatory Diseases, Michael E. DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center, 2Department of Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine, 3Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine

Intravital microscopy is a powerful tool that provides insight into both the temporal and spatial relationships of rapid and/or sequential processes. Herein, we describe a protocol to assess both protein-protein interactions and platelet-neutrophil-endothelial interactions in liver sinusoids in a murine model of experimental sepsis (endotoxemia).

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Biology

Establishing 3D Endometrial Organoids from the Mouse Uterus
Suni Tang 1,2, Sydney E. Parks 1,2, Zian Liao 1,2, Dominique I. Cope 1,2, Sarah E. Blutt 3, Diana Monsivais 1,2
1Department of Pathology & Immunology, Baylor College of Medicine, 2Center for Drug Discovery, Baylor College of Medicine, 3Departments of Molecular Virology and Microbiology and Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine

This protocol describes methodologies to establish mouse endometrial epithelial organoids for gene expression and histological analyses.

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Biology

Application of Flow Vermimetry for Quantification and Analysis of the Caenorhabditis elegans Gut Microbiome
Fan Zhang *1, Dana Blackburn *1, Ciara N. Hosea 1,2, Adrien Assié 1, Buck S. Samuel 1,2
1Alkek Center for Metagenomics and Microbiome Research and Department of Molecular Virology and Microbiology, Baylor College of Medicine, 2Development, Disease Models and Therapeutics Program, Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Baylor College of Medicine

Caenorhabditis elegans is a powerful model to examine the molecular determinants driving host-microbiome interactions. We present a high throughput pipeline profiling the single animal levels of gut microbiome colonization together with key aspects of the C. elegans physiology.

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Cancer Research

In Vivo Gene Delivery into Mouse Mammary Epithelial Cells Through Mammary Intraductal Injection
Wen Bu 1,2, Yi Li 1,3
1Lester & Sue Smith Breast Center, Baylor College of Medicine, 2Department of Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine, 3Department of Molecular & Cellular Biology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030

The present protocol describes intraductal injection of viral vectors via the teat to deliver genes of interest into the mammary epithelial cells.

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Biology

A Mouse Model for Corneal Neovascularization by Alkali Burn
Remya Ammassam Veettil 1, Wei Li 1, Stephen C. Pflugfelder 1, Douglas D. Koch 1
1Cullen Eye Institute, Department of Ophthalmology, Baylor College of Medicine

This protocol focuses on alkali burn-induced corneal neovascularization in mice. The method generates a reproducible and controllable corneal disease model to study pathological angiogenesis and the associated molecular mechanisms and to test new pharmacological agents to prevent corneal neovascularization.

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Behavior

Screening People on Standing Balance with Romberg Testing and Walking Balance with Tandem Walking
Helen S. Cohen 1
1Bobby R Alford Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Baylor College of Medicine

This article describes procedures for screening people for standing and walking balance impairments using two normed, rapid, low-tech balance tests.

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Medicine

Characterization of Vascular Morphology of Neovascular Age-Related Macular Degeneration by Indocyanine Green Angiography
Anish Attarde 1, Thomas S. Riad 1, Zhao Zhang 1, Manisha Ahir 1, Yingbin Fu 1
1Cullen Eye Institute, Baylor College of Medicine

Currently, fluorescein angiography (FA) is the preferred method for identifying leakage patterns in animal models of choroidal neovascularization (CNV). However, FA does not provide information about vascular morphology. This protocol outlines the use of indocyanine green angiography (ICGA) to characterize different lesion types of laser-induced CNV in mouse models.

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Immunology and Infection

Live Calcium Imaging of Virus-Infected Human Intestinal Organoid Monolayers Using Genetically Encoded Calcium Indicators
J. Thomas Gebert 1, Francesca J. Scribano 1, Kristen A. Engevik 1, Joseph M. Hyser 1
1Alkek Center for Metagenomics and Microbiome Research, Department of Molecular Virology and Microbiology, Baylor College of Medicine

This protocol describes an approach for performing calcium imaging in virus-infected human intestinal organoids and offers an approach to analysis.

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Biology

Dissection, Histological Processing, and Gene Expression Analysis of Murine Supraclavicular Brown Adipose Tissue
Mark G Waterstraat 1,2, ZiYi Wang 1, Mari Kogiso 1, Rommel Caballero-Juarez 1,2, Miao-Hsueh Chen 1
1Children's Nutrition Research Center, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, 2Department of BioSciences, Rice University

Here, we provide a practical procedure for dissecting and performing histological and gene expression analyses of murine supraclavicular brown adipose tissue.

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Biology

Using Human Intestinal Organoids to Understand the Small Intestine Epithelium at the Single Cell Transcriptional Level
Carolyn Bomidi 1, Xi-Lei Zeng 1, Victoria Poplaski 1, Cristian Coarfa 2, Mary K. Estes 1, Sarah E. Blutt 1
1Department of Molecular Virology and Microbiology, Baylor College of Medicine, 2Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Baylor College of Medicine

The protocol combines human intestinal organoid technology with single cell transcriptomic analysis to provide significant insight into previously unexplored intestinal biology.

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Neuroscience

Molecular Imaging of Human Brain Organoids Using Mass Spectrometry
Saleh M. Khalil *1,2, Gerarda Cappuccio *1,2, Feng Li 3,4, Mirjana Maletic-Savatic 1,2,4,5
1Department of Pediatrics -Neurology, Baylor College of Medicine, 2Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute, Texas Children's Hospital, 3Department of Pathology & Immunology, Baylor College of Medicine, 4Center for Drug Discovery, Baylor College of Medicine, 5Department of Neuroscience, Baylor College of Medicine

An advanced method was developed for mass spectrometry imaging (MSI) of brain organoids that allows mapping metabolite distributions within these models. This technology offers insights into brain metabolic pathways and metabolite signatures during early development and in disease, promising a deeper understanding of the human brain function.

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