Assessment of Cellular Oxidation using a Subcellular Compartment-Specific Redox-Sensitive Green Fluorescent Protein

Summary

This protocol describes the assessment of subcellular compartment-specific redox status within the cell. A redox-sensitive fluorescent probe allows convenient ratiometric analysis in intact cells.

Abstract

Measuring the intracellular oxidation/reduction balance provides an overview of the physiological and/or pathophysiological redox status of an organism. Thiols are especially important for illuminating the redox status of cells via their reduced dithiol and oxidized disulfide ratios. Engineered cysteine-containing fluorescent proteins open a new era for redox-sensitive biosensors. One of them, redox-sensitive green fluorescent protein (roGFP), can easily be introduced into cells with adenoviral transduction, allowing the redox status of subcellular compartments to be evaluated without disrupting cellular processes. Reduced cysteines and oxidized cystines of roGFP have excitation maxima at 488 nm and 405 nm, respectively, with emission at 525 nm. Assessing the ratios of these reduced and oxidized forms allows the convenient calculation of redox balance within the cell. In this method article, immortalized human triple-negative breast cancer cells (MDA-MB-231) were used to assess redox status within the living cell. The protocol steps include MDA-MB-231 cell line transduction with adenovirus to express cytosolic roGFP, treatment with H₂O₂, and assessment of cysteine and cystine ratio with both flow cytometry and fluorescence microscopy.

Introduction

Oxidative stress was defined in 1985 by Helmut Sies as “a disturbance in prooxidant–antioxidant balance in favor of the former”¹, and a plethora of research has been conducted to obtain disease-, nutrition-, and aging-specific redox status of organisms^1,2,3. Since then, the understanding of oxidative stress has become broader. Testing the hypotheses of using antioxidants against diseases and/or aging has shown that oxidative stress not only causes harm but also has other roles in cells. Furthermore, scientists have shown that free rad....

Protocol

NOTE: This protocol was optimized for 70%–80% confluent MDA-MB-231 cells. For other cell lines, the number of cells and multiplicity of infection (MOI) should be reoptimized.

1. Preparation of cells (day 1)

1. Maintain MDA-MB-231 cell line in 75 cm² flasks with 10 mL of Dulbecco’s modified Eagle medium (DMEM) supplemented with 10% fetal bovine serum (FBS) at 37 °C in a 5% CO₂ humidified atmosphere.
   NOTE: DMEM supplemented with 10% FBS, 37 °C, and a 5% CO₂ humidified atmosphere are used for all attachment and treatment incubations throughout the entire protocol.

Results

The redox state of CyS/CySS is easily assayed with transduced roGFPs. The fluorescent probe quantifies the ratio between the reduced and oxidized forms (excitation wavelengths 488 nm and 405 nm, respectively). Fluorescence data can be obtained by both flow cytometry and microscopy.

A large number of cells can consistently and conveniently be acquired using flow cytometry. The analysis consists of 3 main steps: 1) select the cell population of interest with the FSC area filter (

Discussion

The thiol/disulfide balance in an organism reflects the redox status of cells. Living organisms have glutathione, cysteine, protein thiols, and low-molecular-weight thiols, all of which are affected by the level of oxidation and echo the redox status of cells⁴. Engineered roGFPs allow the non-disruptive quantification of the thiol/disulfide balance via their CyS residues⁷. The ratiometric property of roGFP provides reliable redox measurements for mammalian cells. roGFP can .......

Materials

Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
0.25% Trypsin-EDTA	Gibco by Life Sciences	25200-056	Cell culture
4-well chamber slide	Thermo Scientific	154526	Cell seeding material for fluorescent imaging
5 ml tubes with cell strainer cap	Falcon	352235	Single cell suspension tube for flow cytometry analysis
6-well plate	Corning	353046	Cell seeding material for flow cytometry analysis
15 ml conical tubes	MidSci	C15B	Cell culture
75 cm2 ventilated cap tissue culture flasks	Corning	4306414	Cell culture
Adenoviral cytosol specific roGFP	ViraQuest	VQAd roGFP	roGFP construct kindly provided by Dr. Schumaker
Class II, Type A2 Safety Hood Cabinet	Thermo Scientific	1300 Series A2	Cell culture
Countess automated cell counter	Invitrogen	C10227	Cell counting
Countess cell counter chamber slides	Invitrogen	C10283	Cell counting
DMEM	Gibco by Life Sciences	11995-065	Cell culture
FBS	Atlanta Biologicals	S11150	Cell culture
Filtered pipette tips, sterile, 20 µl	Fisherbrand	02-717-161	Cell culture
Filtered pipette tips, sterile, 1000 µl	Fisherbrand	02-717-166	Cell culture
Flow Cytometer	BD Biosciences	LSRFortessa	Instrument equipped with FITC and BV510 bandpass filters for flow cytometry analyses
Fluorescent Microscope	Advanced Microscopy Group (AMG)	Evos FL	Fluorescent imaging
Hydrogen Peroxide 30%	Fisher Scientific	H325-100	Positive control
Light Cube, Custom	Life Sciences	CUB0037	Fluorescent imaging of roGFP expressing cells (ex 405 nm)
Light Cube, GFP	Thermo Scientific	AMEP4651	Fluorescent imaging of roGFP expressing cells (ex 488 nm)
MDA-MB-231	American Tissue Culture Collection	HTB-26	Human epithelial breast cancer cell line
Microcentrifuge tubes, 2 ml	Grenier Bio-One	623201	Cell culture
PBS	Gibco by Life Sciences	10010-023	Cell culture
Pipet controller	Drummond	Hood Mate Model 360	Cell culture
Serologycal pipet, 1 ml	Fisherbrand	13-678-11B	Cell culture
Serologycal pipet, 5 ml	Fisherbrand	13-678-11D	Cell culture
Serologycal pipet, 10 ml	Fisherbrand	13-678-11E	Cell culture
Tissue Culture Incubator	Thermo Scientific	HERACell 150i	CO2 incubator for cell culture
Trypan blue stain 0.4%	Invitrogen	T10282	Cell counting