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Preparation of mitochondria-enriched samples from previously frozen archived solid tissues allowed the investigators to perform both functional and analytical assessments of mitochondria in various experimental modalities. This study demonstrates how to prepare mitochondria-enriched preparations from frozen heart tissue and perform analytical assessments of mitochondria.
The mitochondrial electron transfer complex (ETC) profile is modified in the heart tissue of the offspring born to an exercised sow. The hypothesis proposed and tested was that a regular maternal exercise of a sow during pregnancy would increase the mitochondrial efficiency of offspring heart bioenergetics. This hypothesis was tested by isolating mitochondria using a mild-isolation procedure to assess mitochondrial ETC and supercomplex profiles. The procedure described here allowed for the processing of previously frozen archived heart tissues and eliminated the necessity of fresh mitochondria preparation for the assessment of mitochondrial ETC complexes, supercomplexes, and ETC complex activity profiles. This protocol describes the optimal ETC protein complex measurement in multiplexed antibody-based immunoblotting and super complex assessment using blue-native gel electrophoresis.
The goal of this protocol was to provide detailed steps to obtain mitochondria-enriched preparation from previously frozen heart tissue with a new technology of low energy mechanical disruption of tissue that improves tissue lysis and extraction of mitochondria. With this method, improved extraction efficiency without generating high shear stress or high temperature and short homogenization time (10-12 s) become achievable1.
To obtain mitochondria from archived frozen tissue is a valuable asset to perform both functional2 and biochemical studies3 otherwise not easily repeatable under the exact experimental conditions. A classic Potter-Elvehjem Teflon pestle glass homogenizer or Dounce homogenizer has been used and is still being used in research laboratories to homogenize soft tissues such as liver, kidney, and brain. However, homogenizing hard tissues such as muscle and heart require more homogenization time, enzyme treatment, high-speed homogenization, and extensive user experience. This is disadvantageous for extracting intact organelles such as mitochondria from hard tissue such as muscle and heart. The method described in this protocol is used to obtain high yield mitochondria-enriched preparation to analyze mitochondrial electron transport chain (ETC) protein complexes and their supercomplex formation in heart tissues harvested from offspring born to exercised and sedentary sow, flash-frozen in liquid nitrogen, and stored at -80 °C for future use. This method allows the user to isolate mitochondria enriched preparation from previously frozen archived tissues.
External nanomaterial exposure to pregnant rodents can negatively affect cardiac function and mitochondrial respiration and bioenergetics on progeny during gestation4. Nevertheless, aerobic exercise-induced positive changes in fetal myocyte bioenergetics during pregnancy are yet to be documented. However, emerging studies provide evidence that maternal aerobic exercise during pregnancy has a positive influence on fetal cardiac function5. In order to provide further evidence, an analysis of the longitudinal effects of maternal exercise on offspring cardiac mitochondrial respiratory chain complexes (i.e., Complex I through Complex V) during pregnancy was performed.
This study has significant health relevance since the results may suggest that maternal exercise improves the efficiency of energy production in the cardiac mitochondria of the offspring. In this study, sows (female pig) were used as an animal model for two reasons: (i) cardiac physiology is similar to human6, and (ii) heart tissue harvest from offspring from different time points is feasible under an institutional IACUC approval. The proposed study aims to answer many of the fundamental questions linking maternal exercise and its potential positive effects on the cellular and biochemical makeup of the offspring's heart tissue. This approach requires gentle yet effective mitochondria isolation techniques from previously frozen cardiac tissue obtained from the lengthy and costly longitudinal studies that addressed the issues of the bioenergetic changes within fetal cardiac myocytes during the pregnancy. The method described in this study allows utilizing large sums of previously frozen archived tissue for mitochondria-enriched preparation for both analytical and functional studies. The study will also help fill the knowledge gap in this field by providing preliminary data, which could lead to future studies determining the effects of maternal exercise on heart health in utero and beyond.
Frozen offspring heart tissues were received from Dr. Sean Newcomer along with the institutional IACUC approval letter. The heart tissues were obtained from a long-term longitudinal study, flash-frozen in liquid nitrogen, and stored at -80 °C for future use. All protocols concerning the processing of offspring heart tissue followed the guidelines of Kansas City University IBC and IACUC committees.
1. Preparation of buffers and reagents
NOTE: Prepare all samples as per the manufacturer's guidelines. Use ultra-purified water or equivalent in all recipes and protocol steps. Wear personal protection equipment (lab gloats, facemask, gloves, and goggles/face shield) during this procedure. Buffer volumes are suitable for processing six tissue samples.
2. Mitochondria isolation from frozen heart tissue
NOTE: Perform the mitochondria isolation procedure in a 4 °C cold room. However, in case of unavailability of the cold room, use a large size ice bath to perform the procedure.
Figure 1: Tissue shredder chamber (tube) for use with the shredder. Tissue homogenization in the shredder tube requires about 10-12 s per tissue sample. Tissue homogenization is completed once the homogenized tissue passes through the perforated disk into the upper chamber. Please click here to view a larger version of this figure.
Figure 1: Tissue shredder chamber (tube) for use with the shredder. Tissue homogenization in the shredder tube requires about 10-12 s per tissue sample. Tissue homogenization is completed once the homogenized tissue passes through the perforated disk into the upper chamber. Please click here to view a larger version of this figure.
3. Mitochondrial electron transfer complex (ETC) assessment
NOTE: Individual mitochondrial ETC proteins (i.e., Complex-I, II, III, IV, V) can be assessed by standard immunoblotting assay. Due to the variety of samples (four time points: 48 h, 3 months,6 months, 9 months), two experimental conditions (exercised and sedentary), and a number of immunoprobing antibodies (five antibodies), a multiplexed immunoblotting is recommended. Perform multiplexed immunoblotting as follows.
4. The mitochondria supercomplex assessment by Blue Native Poly Acrylamide Gel Electrophoresis (BN-PAGE)
NOTE: A supercomplex profile of ETC can also be assessed by employing the BN-PAGE technique.
Protein | Digitonin/protein | 4x Sample Buffer | 5% Digitonin | Water | Final volume | 5% Coomassie G-250 |
ratio (g/g) | sample additive | |||||
50 µg | 8 | 5 | 8 | 7 | 20 | 2 |
50 µg | 4 | 5 | 4 | 11 | 20 | 1 |
Table 1: Sample Buffer Cocktail Preparation with two different detergent/protein ratios. To achieve maximum solubilization of membrane proteins from the mitochondrial suspension, the digitonin/mitochondrial suspension protein concentration should be adjusted to between 4-8 g digitonin/g of protein. In the heart tissue, 400 µg digitonin for 50 µg of mitochondrial suspension proteins (i.e., 8 g digitonin/g of mitochondria protein) were used to maximize the solubility of the supercomplexes from the mitochondria suspension.
5. Mitochondria supercomplex assessment by immunoblot blot analysis
Following the protocol, a good yield of mitochondria-enriched protein mixture from heart tissue was prepared. Approximately 15 mg/mL of mitochondria-enriched protein mixture was obtained from an average of 1.2 g frozen heart tissue harvested from the offspring of the sow. Observations indicated that less than 0.5 g of frozen heart tissue did not yield a sufficient amount of mitochondrial-enriched protein mixture to carry out a BN-PAGE assay. The amount of mitochondrial preparation was sufficient to perform (i) a standard...
The critical steps for this protocol are indicated here. First, tissue homogenization should be carefully handled so that excessive sheer effects will not be applied during the tissue homogenization process. A tissue shredder should be used, which is a part of pressure cycling technology (PCT) for initial tissue homogenization9. This step will reduce the excessive stroke cycle of glass-on-glass homogenizer (Figure 1B) that may further destroy already fragile mitochond...
The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
This work was financially supported by Kansas City University's intramural grant for Abdulbaki Agbas and Summer Research Fellowship for Daniel Barrera. The authors are thankful for Dr. Jan Talley's editorial work.
Name | Company | Catalog Number | Comments |
Amino caproic acid | Sigma/Aldrich | A2504-100G | |
Anti-Hu Total OxPhos complex kit | Invitrogen | 458199 | |
anti-VDAC antibody | abcam | ab15895 | use 1 µg/mL |
Coomassie G-250 | ThermoSientific | 20279 | |
Coomassie GelCode Blue | ThermoScientific | 24592 | |
Digitonin | Cabiochem | 300410 | |
Glass-Glass pestle homogenizer | VWR | KT885451-0020 | |
Image Studio | LICOR | ||
IR-Dye conjugated anti-Rabbit Ab | LICOR | LC0725 | |
Multiwell plate reader | BioTek | Synergy HT | |
Native molecular weight marker | ThermoFisher | BN2001 | |
Nylon mesh monofilament | Small Part Inc | CMN-74 | |
Orbital shaker | ThermoScientfic | ||
PCT Shredder | Pressure Bioscience Inc | ||
SEA BLOCK Blocking buffer | ThermoScienctific | 37527 | |
Shredder PULSE Tube | Pressure Bioscience Inc | FT500-PS | |
Table top centrifuge | Eppendorf | 5418 | |
Trypsin | Amresco | M150-1G | |
Trypsin inhibitor | Amresco | M191-1G | Requires fresh preparation |
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