Name: confocal imaging of neuropeptide y-phluorin: a technique to visualize insulin granule exocytosis in intact murine and human islets
Uploaded: 2017-09-13T13:00:00
Description: Watch this Scientific Journal Video about Confocal Imaging of Neuropeptide Y-pHluorin: A Technique to Visualize Insulin Granule Exocytosis in Intact Murine and Human Islets at JoVE.com

The authors thank Marcia Boulina from the DRI imaging core facility for help with the microscopes. This work was supported by NIH grants 1K01DK111757-01 (JA), F31668418 (MM), R01 DK111538, R33 ES025673 and R56 DK084321 (AC).

The animal ethics committee of the University of Miami has approved all the experiments.
1. Viral Infection of Intact Isolated Human or Mouse Pancreatic Islets
<ol>
	<li>Islet culture: prepare the islet culture media: Connaught Medical Research Laboratories (CMRL) 1066, 10% (v/v) FBS and 2 mM L-Glutamine.
	<ol>
		<li>Human pancreatic islets are obtained from the Integrated Islet Distribution Program (NIDDK, NIH). Upon arrival, transfer the islets (~ 500 islet equivalents) to 35-mm non-tissue...

<ol>
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D. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Pancreatic+beta+cells+synthesize+neuropeptide+Y+and+can+rapidly+release+peptide+co-transmitters.">Pancreatic beta cells synthesize neuropeptide Y and can rapidly release peptide co-transmitters.</a> PLoS One. 6 (4), e19478 (2011).</li><li>Tsuboi, T., Rutter, G. 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This manuscript describes a technique that can be used to visualize exocytosis of insulin granules in beta cells within intact pancreatic islets by confocal microscopy. It uses NPY-pHluorin as the fluorescent reporter cloned into adenovirus to ensure a high transfection efficiency.
Although the method was highly efficient in our hands, it might require some modifications that primarily depend on two parameters: 1) the quality of islet preparation, and 2) the titer of viral stock with optimizat...

Insulin is produced by the beta cells of the pancreatic islet and it is a key regulator of glucose metabolism1. Death or dysfunction of beta cells disturbs glucose homeostasis and leads to diabetes2. Insulin is packed in dense-core granules that are released in a Ca2+-dependent manner3. Elucidating how insulin granule exocytosis is regulated is essential to fully understand what determines insulin secretion and opens new avenues for the identification of novel therapeutic targets for the treatment of diabetes.
Insulin exocytosis has been extensively studied using electrophysiological approaches, such as membrane capacitance measurements, and microscopic approaches in combination with fluorescent molecules. Membrane capacitance measurements have good temporal resolution and allow single cell recordings. However, changes in the capacitance reflect the net surface change of the cell and do not capture individual fusion events or distinguish insulin granule fusion from other non-insulin secretory vesicles3. Microscopic approaches, such as two-photon or total internal reflection fluorescence (TIRF) microscopy in combination with fluorescent probes and vesicle cargo proteins, provide additional detail. These techniques capture single exocytotic events and also the pre- and post-exocytotic stages and can be used for studying exocytotic patterns in populations of cells3.
Fluorescent reporters can be of three types: 1) extracellular, 2) cytoplasmic, or 3) vesicular. 1) Extracellular reporters are polar tracers (e.g., dextrans, sulforhodamine B (SRB), lucifer yellow, pyranine) that can be introduced through the extracellular milieu4. The use of polar tracers allows for the investigation of the fusion pore in a population of cells and captures various intercellular structures such as blood vessels. However, they do not report on vesicle cargo behavior. 2) Cytoplasmic reporters are fluorescent probes coupled to membrane-associated proteins that face the cytoplasm and are involved in docking and exocytosis. Examples include members of the soluble N-ethylmaleimide-sensitive factor attachment protein receptor (SNARE) family that have been successfully used in neuroscience for studying neurotransmitter release5. Such proteins have multiple binding partners and are not insulin-granule specific. 3) Vesicular reporters are fluorescent probes fused to vesicular cargo proteins that allow for the investigation of cargo-specific vesicle behavior. Insulin-granule specific cargo proteins include insulin, c-peptide, islet amyloid polypeptide, and NPY among others6,7. NPY is only present in insulin containing granules, and is co-released with insulin, making it an excellent partner for a fluorescent reporter8.
The fusion of different fluorescent proteins to NPY has been previously employed to study various aspects of exocytosis in neuroendocrine cells, such as the requirement of specific synaptotagmin isoforms9,10 and how the time-course of release depends on the actin cytoskeleton and on myosin II11,12. In this study, we chose pHluorin as the fluorescent reporter, which is a modified GFP that is non-fluorescent at the acidic pH inside dense core granules but becomes brightly fluorescent upon exposure to the neutral extracellular pH13. Mature insulin granules have an acidic pH below 5.5. Once the granule fuses with the plasma membrane and opens, its cargo is exposed to the neutral extracellular pH of 7.4, allowing the use of the pH-sensitive proteins pHluorin as a reporter7,14.
In view of the pH sensitive nature of pHluorin and the selective expression of NPY in insulin granules, the NPY-pHluorin fusion construct can be used to study various properties of insulin granule exocytosis. The viral delivery of the fusion construct ensures high transfection efficiency and works on primary beta cells or cell lines as well as on isolated islets. This method can also be used as a guideline for studying exocytosis in any other cell type with NPY-containing vesicles. It can also be combined with any transgenic mouse model to study effects of certain conditions (knockdowns, overexpression, etc.) on exocytosis. This technique has been previously used to characterize spatial and temporal patterns of insulin granule secretion in beta cell populations in human islets15.

<table width="845">
	<tbody>
		<tr height="63">
			<td height="63" style="width:280px;height:63px;">Upright laser-scanning confocal microscope</td>
			<td style="width:232px;">Leica Microsystems, Wetzlar, Germany</td>
			<td style="width:167px;">TCS-SP5</td>
			<td style="width:167px;">includes LAS AF, the image acquisition software</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="width:280px;height:21px;">Imaging chamber</td>
			<td style="width:232px;">Warner instruments</td>
			<td style="width:167px;">RC-26</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="width:280px;height:21px;">Imaging chamber platform</td>
			<td style="width:232px;">Warner instruments</td>
			<td style="width:167px;">PH-1</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="width:280px;height:21px;">22x40 glass coverslips</td>
			<td style="width:232px;">Daiggerbrand</td>
			<td style="width:167px;">G15972H</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="width:280px;height:21px;">Vacuum silicone grease</td>
			<td style="width:232px;">Sigma</td>
			<td style="width:167px;">Z273554-1EA</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="width:280px;height:21px;">Multichannel perfusion system</td>
			<td style="width:232px;">Warner instruments</td>
			<td style="width:167px;">VC-8</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="width:280px;height:21px;">Single inline solution heater</td>
			<td style="width:232px;">Warner instruments</td>
			<td style="width:167px;">SH-27B</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="width:280px;height:21px;">Temperature controller</td>
			<td style="width:232px;">Warner instruments</td>
			<td style="width:167px;">TC-324C</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="width:280px;height:21px;">Peristaltic Suction pump</td>
			<td style="width:232px;">Pharmacia</td>
			<td style="width:167px;">P-1</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="42">
			<td height="42" style="width:280px;height:42px;">35 mm Petri dish, non-tissue culture treated</td>
			<td style="width:232px;">VWR</td>
			<td style="width:167px;">10861-586</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="width:280px;height:21px;">CMRL Medium, no glutamine</td>
			<td style="width:232px;">ThermoFisher</td>
			<td style="width:167px;">11530037</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="width:280px;height:21px;">FBS, heat inactivated</td>
			<td style="width:232px;">ThermoFisher</td>
			<td style="width:167px;">16140071</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="width:280px;height:21px;">L-Glutamine 200mM</td>
			<td style="width:232px;">ThermoFisher</td>
			<td style="width:167px;">25030081</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="width:280px;height:21px;">5M NaCl solution</td>
			<td style="width:232px;">Sigma</td>
			<td style="width:167px;">S5150</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="width:280px;height:21px;">3M KCl solution</td>
			<td style="width:232px;">Sigma</td>
			<td style="width:167px;">60135</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="25">
			<td height="25" style="width:280px;height:25px;">1M CaCl2 solution</td>
			<td style="width:232px;">Sigma</td>
			<td style="width:167px;">21115</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="25">
			<td height="25" style="width:280px;height:25px;">1M MgCl2 solution</td>
			<td style="width:232px;">Sigma</td>
			<td style="width:167px;">M1028</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="width:280px;height:21px;">Bovine Serum Albumin</td>
			<td style="width:232px;">Sigma</td>
			<td style="width:167px;">A2153</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="width:280px;height:21px;">1M HEPES solution</td>
			<td style="width:232px;">Sigma</td>
			<td style="width:167px;">H0887</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="width:280px;height:21px;">Vacuum filter</td>
			<td style="width:232px;">VWR</td>
			<td style="width:167px;">431098</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="width:280px;height:21px;">D-Glucose</td>
			<td style="width:232px;">Sigma</td>
			<td style="width:167px;">G8270</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="width:280px;height:21px;">Poly-D-lysine hydrobromide</td>
			<td style="width:232px;">Sigma-aldrich</td>
			<td style="width:167px;">P6407</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="width:280px;height:21px;">Di-8-ANNEP</td>
			<td style="width:232px;">ThermoFisher</td>
			<td style="width:167px;">D3167</td>
			<td style="width:167px;"></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="width:280px;height:21px;">3-isobutyl-1-methylxanthine (IBMX)</td>
			<td style="width:232px;">Sigma</td>
			<td style="width:167px;">I5879</td>
			<td style="width:167px;"></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="width:280px;height:21px;">Forskolin</td>
			<td style="width:232px;">Sigma</td>
			<td style="width:167px;">F3917</td>
			<td style="width:167px;"></td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>

confocal imaging of neuropeptide y-phluorin: a technique to visualize insulin granule exocytosis in intact murine and human islets

Insulin secretion plays a central role in glucose homeostasis under normal physiological conditions as well as in disease. Current approaches to study insulin granule exocytosis either use electrophysiology or microscopy coupled to the expression of fluorescent reporters. However most of these techniques have been optimized for clonal cell lines or require dissociating pancreatic islets. In contrast, the method presented here allows for real time visualization of insulin granule exocytosis in intact pancreatic islets. In this protocol, we first describe the viral infection of isolated pancreatic islets with adenovirus that encodes a pH-sensitive green fluorescent protein (GFP), pHluorin, coupled to neuropeptide Y (NPY). Second, we describe the confocal imaging of islets five days after viral infection and how to monitor the insulin granule secretion. Briefly, the infected islets are placed on a coverslip on an imaging chamber and imaged under an upright laser-scanning confocal microscope while being continuously perfused with extracellular solution containing various stimuli. Confocal images spanning 50 &#181;m of the islet are acquired as time-lapse recordings using a fast-resonant scanner. The fusion of insulin granules with the plasma membrane can be followed over time. This procedure also allows for testing a battery of stimuli in a single experiment, is compatible with both mouse and human islets, and can be combined with various dyes for functional imaging (e.g., membrane potential or cytosolic calcium dyes).

The entire workflow of the technique is shown in Figure 1. Briefly, mouse or human islets can be infected with adenovirus encoding NPY-pHluorin and imaged, after few days in culture, under a confocal microscope. As granules fuse with plasma membrane and open, an increase in fluorescence is observed and can be quantified (Figure 1). To determine if NPY-pHluorin is indeed a suitable tool to monitor insulin granule dynamics, infecte...

Watch this Scientific Journal Video about Confocal Imaging of Neuropeptide Y-pHluorin: A Technique to Visualize Insulin Granule Exocytosis in Intact Murine and Human Islets at JoVE.com

Confocal Imaging of Neuropeptide Y-pHluorin: A Technique to Visualize Insulin Granule Exocytosis in Intact Murine and Human Islets

We describe a protocol for visualization of insulin exocytosis in intact islets using pHluorin, a pH-sensitive green fluorescent protein. Isolated islets are infected with adenovirus encoding pHluorin coupled to the vesicle cargo neuropeptide Y. This allows for the detection of insulin granule fusion events by confocal microscopy.

Insulin secretion plays a central role in glucose homeostasis under normal physiological conditions as well as in disease. Current approaches to study ...

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Insulin Injection and Hemolymph Extraction to Measure Insulin Sensitivity in Adult Drosophila melanogaster

Insulin Injection and Hemolymph Extraction to Measure Insulin Sensitivity in Adult Drosophila melanogaster

Conserved nutrient sensing mechanisms exist between mammal and fruit fly where peptides resembling mammalian insulin and glucagon, respectively function ...

Fluorescence-based Measurement of Store-operated Calcium Entry in Live Cells: from Cultured Cancer Cell to Skeletal Muscle Fiber

Store operated Ca2+ entry (SOCE), earlier termed capacitative Ca2+ entry, is a tightly regulated mechanism for influx of extracellular Ca2+ into cells to ...

Confocal Imaging of Single Mitochondrial Superoxide Flashes in Intact Heart or In Vivo

Confocal Imaging of Single Mitochondrial Superoxide Flashes in Intact Heart or In Vivo

Mitochondrion is a critical intracellular organelle responsible for energy production and intracellular signaling in eukaryotic systems. Mitochondrial ...

Efficient Production and Purification of Recombinant Murine Kindlin-3 from Insect Cells for Biophysical Studies

Kindlins are essential coactivators, with talin, of the cell surface receptors&#160;integrins and also participate in integrin outside-in signalling, and ...

High-resolution Time-lapse Imaging and Automated Analysis of Microtubule Dynamics in Living Human Umbilical Vein Endothelial Cells

The physiological process by which new vasculature forms from existing vasculature requires specific signaling events that trigger morphological changes ...

Glucose Uptake Measurement and Response to Insulin Stimulation in In Vitro Cultured Human Primary Myotubes

Glucose Uptake Measurement and Response to Insulin Stimulation in In Vitro Cultured Human Primary Myotubes

Skeletal muscle is the largest glucose deposit in mammals and largely contributes to glucose homeostasis. Assessment of insulin sensitivity of muscle ...