Time-Lapse Imaging of Migrating Neurons and Glial Progenitors in Embryonic Mouse Brain Slices

Summary

During the development of the cerebral cortex, neurons and glial cells originate in the ventricular zone lining the ventricle and migrate toward the brain surface. Many genes are involved in this process. This protocol introduces the technique for the time-lapse imaging of migrating neurons and glial progenitors.

Abstract

During the development of the cerebral cortex, neurons and glial cells originate in the ventricular zone lining the ventricle and migrate toward the brain surface. This process is crucial for proper brain function, and its dysregulation can result in neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorders after birth. In fact, many genes responsible for these diseases have been found to be involved in this process, and therefore, revealing how these mutations affect cellular dynamics is important for understanding the pathogenesis of these diseases. This protocol introduces a technique for time-lapse imaging of migrating neurons and glial progenitors in brain slices obtained from mouse embryos. Cells are labeled with fluorescent proteins using in utero electroporation, which visualizes individual cells migrating from the ventricular zone with a high signal-to-noise ratio. Moreover, this in vivo gene transfer system enables us to easily perform gain-of-function or loss-of-function experiments on the given genes by co-electroporation of their expression or knockdown/knockout vectors. Using this protocol, the migratory behavior and migration speed of individual cells, information that is never obtained from fixed brains, can be analyzed.

Introduction

During the development of the cerebral cortex, (apical) radial glia in the pallial ventricular zone (VZ) lining the lateral ventricle produce first neurons and then glial progenitors with some overlapping period¹. Neurons are also generated from intermediate progenitors or basal radial glia in the subventricular zone (SVZ) adjacent to the VZ, both of which originate from the (apical) radial glia^2,3. In mice, radial glial cells produce only neurons on embryonic day (E) 12-14, both neurons and glial progenitors on E15-16, and glial progenitors from E17 onward⁴. The....

Protocol

The present study was performed with the approval of and following the guidelines of the Animal Care and Use Committee of the Institute for Developmental Research, Aichi Developmental Disability Center (#2019-013), and Keio University (A2021-030). Timed pregnant ICR (wild-type) mice were obtained commercially (see Table of Materials). To observe the relationship between migrating cells and blood vessels, Flt1-DsRed mice, in which the endothelial cells express DsRed²², were us.......

Discussion

This protocol introduced a method for the time-lapse observation of cells derived from the pallial (cortical) VZ. To label the migrating cells from the VZ, we used in utero electroporation, in which individual cells were clearly labeled with a higher signal-to-noise ratio than in viral vector-mediated labeling. Using in utero electroporation, any type of vector in any combination can be easily introduced into the radial glial cells (neural stem cells) in living embryos. Neurons and glial progenitors can.......

Materials

Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
Aspirator tube assembly	Drummond	2-040-000
Atipamezole (5 mg/mL)	Meiji	Mepatia
Autoclip	Becton Dickinson	427630	9 mm
B27 supplement	Gibco	17504-044
Butorphanol (5 mg/mL)	Meiji	Vetorphale
Cell culture insert	Millipore	PICM ORG 50
Confocal microscope	Nikon	A1RHD25	Equipped with a long working distance lens (S Plan Fluor ELWD 20XC)
Cryomold	Tissue-Tek	4566
Culture chamber	Tokken	TK-NBCMP	Custom-made
Electroporator	NEPA Gene	NEPA21
Fast Green	Sigma-Aldrich	F7258
Gas mixer	Tokken	TK-MIGM01-02
Glass base dish	Iwaki	3910-035	Diameter of glass base is 27 mm
Glass capillaries	Narishige	GD-1
HBS (2x)	Sigma-Aldrich	51558
HBSS(-)	Wako	084-08345
Heater Unit	Tokken	TK-0003HU20	Custom-made, including hood and heater
hGFAP-Cre	Addgene	#40591	A gift from Albee Messing
ImageJ			https://imagej.net/ij/
L-glutamine (200 mM)	Gibco	25030
Low melting temperature agarose	Lonza	50100
Medetomidine (1 mg/mL)	Meiji	Medetomin
Microinjector	Narishige	IM-300
Midazolam (5 mg/mL)	Sandoz	Midazolam
MTrackJ			https://imagescience.org/meijering/software/mtrackj/
Neurobasal medium	Gibco	21103-049
pCAG-hyPBase			The hyPBase cDNA from pCMV-hyPBase (a gift from Sanger Institute) was inserted into the downstream of the CAG promoter of pCAGGS (a gift from J. Miyazaki).
pDcx-Dre			The Dcx promoter from Dcx4kbEGFP70 (a gift from Q. Lu) was exchanged with CAG promoter of pCAG-NLS-HA-Dre34 (a gift from Pawel Pelczar, Addgene #51272).
Penicillin + Streptomycin	Gibco	15140122
Plasmid purification kit	Invitrogen	PureLink HiPure plasmid midiprep kit (K210005)
pPB-CAG-LNL-RFP			CAG-LNL cassette from pCALNL-DsRed (a gift from Connie Cepko, Addgene #13769), and TurboRFP cDNA (Evrogen, FP232) were inserted into the cloning site of pPB-CAG.EBNXN (a gift from Sanger Institute).
pPB-CAG-rDIO-EGFP			The sequence containning synthetic rox sites, synthetic DIO cassette, and EGFP cDNA from pEGFP-N1 (Clontech, U55762) in reverse direction  were inserted into the cloning site of pPB-CAG.EBNXN (a gift from Sanger Institute). The sequence is provided in the Supplementary File.
Puller	Narishige	PN-31
StackRed		a plugin for ImageJ	http://bigwww.epfl.ch/thevenaz/stackreg/
Suture needle	Nazme	C-24-521-R No.1	1/2 circle, length 14 mm
Suture thread	Nazme	C-23-B2	Silk, size 5-0
Timed pregnant ICR (wild-type) mice	Japan SLC	ICR mouse
TrackMate			https://imagej.net/plugins/trackmate/index
Tweezer-type electrode	BEX or NEPA Gene	CUY650P5
Tα1-EGFP			EGFP cDNA from pEGFP-N1 (Clontech, U55762) was inserted into the downstream of the Tα1 promoter in plasmid 253 (a gift from P. Barker and F.D.Miller)
Vibrating microtome	Leica or Zeiss	Vibrating blade microtome VT1000S or Hyrax V50.