Real-Time In Vitro Migration Assay for Primary Murine CD8+ T Cells

Summary

This protocol providesa method of primary murine T cell isolation and time-lapse microscopy of T cell migration under specific environmental conditions with quantitative analysis.

Abstract

The adaptive immune response is reliant on a T cell's ability to migrate through blood, lymph, and tissue in response to pathogens and foreign bodies. T cell migration is a complex process that requires the coordination of many signal inputs from the environment and local immune cells, including chemokines, chemokine receptors, and adhesion molecules. Furthermore, T cell motility is influenced by dynamic surrounding environmental cues, which can alter activation state, transcriptional landscape, adhesion molecule expression, and more. In vivo, the complexity of these seemingly intertwined factors makes it difficult to distinguish individual signals that contribute to T cell migration. This protocol provides a string of methods from T cell isolation to computer-aided analysis to assess T cell migration in real-time under highly specific environmental conditions. These conditions may help elucidate mechanisms that regulate migration, improving our understanding of T cell kinetics and providing strong mechanistic evidence that is difficult to attain through animal experiments. A deeper understanding of the molecular interactions that impact cell migration is important to develop improved therapeutics.

Introduction

T cells are the major effectors of the adaptive, antigen-specific immune response. On a population level, T cells are heterogeneous, comprised of cellular subsets with distinct specialized functions. Importantly, CD8+ T cells are the main cytolytic effectors of the immune system, which directly eliminate infected or dysfunctional cells¹.

Mature CD8+ T cells reside in tissue and circulate through blood and lymphatics in search of antigens. During infection, T cells are presented with antigens in blood or tissue and quickly drain to the spleen or nearest draining lymph node to begin a productive immune response. In eit....

Protocol

The animal protocols were approved by the University Committee on Animal Resources at the University of Rochester. The mice in this study were maintained in the pathogen-free space of the University of Rochester animal facility. Male/female C57BL/6 mice, aged 6-12 weeks (15-30 g), were used for the present study. Mouse tissue isolation can be performed on a benchtop with gloves to cover hands and a facemask to cover the nose and mouth, or inside a biosafety cabinet. All cell culture and plate preparation must b.......

Discussion

Understanding the biological impact of converging signals in vivo is challenging and not easy to interpret. The protocols presented herein provide a reasonable method to understand T cell migration in highly defined and biologically relevant conditions. These conditions can be specified based on the investigator's discretion, and the protocols can be modified to fit the needs of various T cell populations, activation status, and cell phenotype. Furthermore, many ligands and receptors can be interrogated thro.......

Materials

Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
10 cm dish	Corning	353003	or equivalent
15 mL conical tube	ThermoFisher	339650	or equivalent
1x DPBS	Gibco	14190144	without calcium and without magnesium
6 well plate non-TC treated	Corning	3736	or equivalent
70 µm cell strainer	FisherScientific	352350	or equivalent
ACK lysing buffer	ThermoFisher	A1049201	or equivalent
Allegra 6KR centrifuge	ThermoScientific	sorvall 16R with tx400 3655 rotor and bucket	or equivalent
Beta mercaptoethanol	Sigma	M3148	or equivalent
CellTrace Violet	ThermoFisher	C34571	Or equivalent
Centrifuge	ThermoScientific	Sorvall ST 16R	or equivalent
Collagen (IV)	Corning	354233	or equivalent
DeltaT culture dish .17 mm thick glass clear	Bioptechs	04200417C
Dynabeads Sheep anti-Rat IgG	Invitrogen	11035
DynaMag 15 Magnet	ThermoFisher Scientific	12301D	or equivalent
Easy sep mouse T cell isolation kit	Stem Cell	19851
FBS	SigmaAldrich	F2442-500ML	or equivalent
Fibronectin	SigmaAldrich	10838039001	or equivalent
Fiji		http://fiji.sc/	weblink
Filter cubes	Nikon or Olympus
GK1.5	ATCC	TIB-207
HEPES	ThermoFisher	15630080	or equivalent
HQ CCD camera	CoolSNAP		or equivalent
ImageJ		http://imagej.nih.gov/ij/h	weblink
ImageJ automatic tracking plug in		http://imagej.net/TrackMate	weblink
ImageJ manual tracking plug in		https://imagej.nih.gov/ij/plugins/track/track.html	weblink
L-15	Various	See Materials	Medium Recipe: Leibovitz’s L-15 medium without phenol red (Gibco) supplemented with 1-5 g/L glucose
Liebovitz's L-15 medium, no phenol red	ThermoFisher	21083027
Luer Lok disposable syringe	Fisher Scientific	14-955-459	or equivalent
Lymphocyte separation medium	Corning	25-072-CI	or equivalent
M5/114	ATCC	TIB-120
MEM Non-Essential Amino Acids	ThermoFisher	11140050	or equivalent
Microscope heating system	Okolab	okolab.com	Custom designs available
Millicell EZ slide	Millipore	C86024
Mojosort mouse CD8+ Naïve T cell isolation kit	Biolegend	480043
Mouse E-cadherin	R&D systems	8875-EC-050	or equivalent
Mouse surgical dissection kit	Fisher Scientific	13-820-096	or equivalent
NIS elements	Nikon		Software
non-TC 24wp	Corning	353047	or equivalent
Penicillin-streptomycin	ThermoFisher	15140122	or equivalent
Protein A	ThermoFisher Scientific		or equivalent
R9	Various	See Materials	Medium Recipe: RPMI 1640x supplemented with 10 % FBS, 1 % antibiotic-antimycotic (Gibco), 20 mM HEPES buffer (Gibco), 1 % MEM Non-Essential Amino Acids (Gibco), 50 μM β-mercaptoethanol (Sigma-Aldrich)
Recombinant mouse ICAM-1 Fc chimera	R&D systems	796-IC-050	or equivalent
Recombinant Mouse IL2	Biolegend	575410	or equivalent
RPMI 1640x	ThermoFisher	11875093	or equivalent
T pins	Fisher Scientific	S99385	or equivalent
TE2000-U microscope	Nikon		or equivalent
Various recombinant mouse chemokine	R&D systems		or equivalent
VCAM-1 Fc chimera	R&D systems	643-VM-050	or equivalent
Volocity	PerkinElmer		Software