isolation and sectioning of bone tissue from mouse for transcriptomic studies

Protocol to Prepare Demineralized FFPE Bone Tissue Samples with RNA Integrity 

Bone is a specialized connective tissue comprised mainly of fibers of collagen type 1 and inorganic salts1. As a result, bone is incredibly strong and stiff while being, at the same time, light and trauma-resistant. The great strength of bone derives from its mineral content. In fact, for any given increase in the percentage of mineral content, stiffness increases by five-fold2. Consequently, investigators face significant problems when they analyze, by means of histological sectioning, the biology of a bone specimen.
Undecalcified bone histology is feasible and sometimes required, depending on the type of investigation (e.g., to study the micro-architecture of bone); it is, however, very challenging, especially if the specimens are large. In these cases, tissue processing for histological purposes requires several modifications of the standard protocols and techniques3. In general, to perform common histological evaluations, bone tissues are decalcified right after fixation, a process that may require a few days to several weeks, depending on the size of the tissue and the decalcifying agent utilized4. Decalcified sections are often used for the examination of bone marrow, the diagnosis of tumors, etc. There are three main types of decalcifying agents: strong acids (e.g., nitric acid, hydrochloric acid), weak acids (e.g., formic acid), and chelating agents (e.g., ethylenediaminetetracetic acid or EDTA)5. Strong acids can decalcify bone very rapidly, but they can damage the tissues; weak acids are very common and suitable for diagnostic procedures; chelating agents are by far the most used and appropriate for research application since, in this case, the demineralization process is slow and gentle, allowing for retention of high-quality morphology and preservation of gene and protein information, as required by many procedures (e.g., in situ hybridization, immunostaining). However, when the whole transcriptome needs to be preserved, such as for gene expression analyses, even a slow and gentle demineralization may be detrimental. Therefore, better approaches and methods are needed when the morphological analysis of the tissues needs to be paired with gene expression analyses of the cells.
Thanks to recent improvements in single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) and spatial transcriptomics, it is now possible to study the gene expression of a tissue specimen even when formalin fixation paraffin embedding (FFPE) was used to store the tissue samples6,7,8. This opportunity has unlocked access to a larger number of samples, such as those stored in tissue banks worldwide. If scRNA-seq is to be employed, RNA integrity is the most important requirement; however, in the case of spatial transcriptomics of FFPE samples, both high-quality tissue sections and high-quality RNA are necessary to visualize the gene expression within the histological context of each tissue section. While this has been easily achieved with soft tissues, the same cannot be said for hard tissues like bone. In fact, to the best of our knowledge, no study using spatial transcriptomics has ever been performed on FFPE bone samples. This is because of the lack of protocols that can effectively process FFPE bone tissues while preserving their RNA content. Here, a method to process and decalcify freshly obtained bone tissue samples while avoiding RNA degradation is provided first. Then, recognizing the need for transcriptomics analysis of the FFPE samples collected in tissue banks worldwide, developed guidelines to properly handle FFPE samples of non-demineralized bones are also presented.

Author Spotlight: Exploring Advanced Therapeutic Targets in Osteosarcoma Through Spatial Transcriptomics

Methods to Enable Spatial Transcriptomics of Bone Tissues

Our goal is to find better therapeutic approaches to treat a human bone cancer called osteosarcoma. In order to do so, we want to uncover the biological processes responsible for the onset of this tumor and above all for the development of its metastasis, which is deleting cause of patient's death. By employing spatial transcriptomics analysis on several matching specimens of human primary osteosarcoma line metastasis, we located in multiple patient common cell populations residing within the tumoral areas, and by comparing them, we identified several key genes which may represent valuable therapeutic targets to prevent lung metastasis.Special transcriptomics analysis of heart tissue, such as bone have been very challenging because of the inability to preserve good quality RNA and tissue morphology, while at the same time processing the heart tissue for sectioning. Our protocol addresses this gap, allowing researchers to successfully apply special transcriptomics analysis also to heart tissues.

Isolation and Sectioning of Bone Tissue from Mouse for Transcriptomic Studies

isolation-sectioning-bone-tissue-from-mouse-for-transcriptomic

Research

JoVE Journal

Developmental Biology

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