Adipose-Derived Mesenchymal Stromal Cells Co-Cultured with Primary Mixed Glia to Reduce Prion-Induced Inflammation

Summary

Adipose-derived mesenchymal stromal cells (AdMSCs) have potent immunomodulatory properties useful for treating diseases associated with inflammation. We demonstrate how to isolate and culture murine AdMSCs and primary mixed glia, stimulate AdMSCs to upregulate anti-inflammatory genes and growth factors, assess migration of AdMSCs, and co-culture AdMSCs with primary mixed prion-infected glia.

Abstract

Mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) are potent regulators of inflammation through the production of anti-inflammatory cytokines, chemokines, and growth factors. These cells show an ability to regulate neuroinflammation in the context of neurodegenerative diseases such as prion disease and other protein misfolding disorders. Prion diseases can be sporadic, acquired, or genetic; they can result from the misfolding and aggregation of the prion protein in the brain. These diseases are invariably fatal, with no available treatments.

One of the earliest signs of disease is the activation of astrocytes and microglia and associated inflammation, which occurs prior to detectable prion aggregation and neuronal loss; thus, the anti-inflammatory and regulatory properties of MSCs can be harvested to treat astrogliosis in prion disease. Recently, we showed that adipose-derived MSCs (AdMSCs) co-cultured with BV2 cells or primary mixed glia reduce prion-induced inflammation through paracrine signaling. This paper describes a reliable treatment using stimulated AdMSCs to decrease prion-induced inflammation.

A heterozygous population of AdMSCs can easily be isolated from murine adipose tissue and expanded in culture. Stimulating these cells with inflammatory cytokines enhances their ability to both migrate toward prion-infected brain homogenate and produce anti-inflammatory modulators in response. Together, these techniques can be used to investigate the therapeutic potential of MSCs on prion infection and can be adapted for other protein misfolding and neuroinflammatory diseases.

Introduction

Glial inflammation plays a key role in a variety of neurodegenerative diseases, including Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, and prion disease. Although abnormal protein aggregation is attributed to much of disease pathogenesis and neurodegeneration, glial cells also play a part in exacerbating this ^1,2,3. Therefore, targeting glial-induced inflammation is a promising therapeutic approach. In prion disease, the cellular prion protein (PrP^C) misfolds to the disease-associated prion protein (PrP^Sc), which forms oligomers and aggregates and disrupts homeosta....

Protocol

Mice were bred and maintained at Colorado State's Lab Animal Resources, accredited by the Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Lab Animal Care International, in accordance with protocol #1138, approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee at Colorado State University.

1. Isolating and infecting primary cortical mixed glia with prions

1. To isolate primary mixed glia containing both astrocytes and microglia, obtain C57Bl/6 mouse pups aged z.......

Discussion

Here we demonstrate a reliable and relatively inexpensive protocol for assessing the effects of adipose-derived mesenchymal stromal cells (AdMSCs) in decreasing prion-induced inflammation in a glial cell model. AdMSCs can easily be isolated and expanded in culture for use in as little as 1 week. This protocol consistently produces a heterologous population of cells that express markers consistent with those of mesenchymal stromal cells by immunofluorescence and flow cytometry, and retain immunological function when intro.......

Materials

Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
0.25% Trypsin	Cytiva	SH30042.01
5 mL serological pipets	Celltreat	229005B
6-well tissue culture plates	Celltreat	229106
10 cm cell culture dishes	Peak Serum	PS-4002
10 ml serological pipets	Celltreat	229210
15 mL conical tubes	Celltreat	667015B
50 mL conical tubes	Celltreat	667050B
BV2 microglia cell line	AcceGen Biotech	ABC-TC212S
Cell lifter	Biologix Research Company	70-2180
Crystal violet	Electron Microscopy Sciences	12785
Dispase	Thermo Scientific	17105041
DMEM/F12	Caisson Labs	DFL14-500ML
DNase-I	Sigma Aldrich	11284932001
Essential amino acids	Thermo Scientific	11130051
Ethanol (100%)	EMD Millipore	EX0276-1
Fetal bovine serum (heat inactivated)	Peak Serum	PS-FB4	Can be purchased as heat inactivated or inactivated in the laboratory
Formaldehyde	EMD Millipore	1.04003.1000
Glass 10 mL serological pipet	Corning	7077-10N
Hank’s Balances Salt Solution	Sigma Aldrich	H8264-500ML
Hemocytometer/Neubauer Chamber	Daigger	HU-3100
High Glucose DMEM	Cytiva	SH30022.01
low glucose DMEM containing L-glutamine	Cytiva	SH30021.01
MEM/EBSS	Cytiva	SH30024.FS
non-essential amino acids	Sigma-Aldrich	M7145-100M
Paraformaldehyde (16%)	MP Biomedicals	219998320
Penicillin/streptomycin/neomycin	Sigma-Aldrich	P4083-100ML
Phosphate buffered saline	Cytiva	SH30256.01
Recombinant Mouse IFN-gamma Protein	R&D Systems	485-MI
Recombinant Mouse TNF-alpha (aa 80-235) Protein, CF	R&D Systems	410-MT
RNeasy mini kit	Qiagen	74104
Sigmacote	Sigma Aldrich	SL2-100ML	Coat inside of glass pipets by aspirating up and down twice in Sigmacote and allowing to dry thoroughly. Wrap in aluminum foil and autoclave pipets 24 h later.
Stemxyme	Worthington Biochemical Corporation	LS004106	Collagenase/Dispase mixture
Sterile, individually wrapped cotton swab	Puritan Medical	25-8061WC
Thincert Tissue Culture Inserts, 24 well, Pore Size=8 µm	Greiner Bio-One	662638
Thincert Tissue Culture Inserts, 6 well, Pore Size=0.4 µm	Greiner Bio-One	657641