Name: using flow cytometry to detect and quantitate altered blood formation in the developing zebrafish
Uploaded: 2021-04-29T14:00:00
Description: Watch this Scientific Journal Video about Using Flow Cytometry to Detect and Quantitate Altered Blood Formation in the Developing Zebrafish at JoVE.com

Funding was provided by the National Institutes of Health (NIH: R15 DK114732-01 to D.L.S.), the National Science Foundation (NSF: MRI 1626406 to D.L.S.), and from the Honor&#39;s Program at California State University Chico (to K.F.R.). The authors thank Betsey Tamietti for laboratory management and Kathy Johns for administrative assistance.

The Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) advisory board at California State University, Chico, approved all methods described below.
NOTE: It is advised to treat embryos with 1-phenyl 2-thiourea (PTU; Table 1) at 24 hours postfertilization (hpf) to prevent pigmentation which negatively affects fluorescence discrimination by flow cytometry. All procedures listed below are acceptable for flow cytometry and fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS). However, if on...

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L., Traver, D. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Cellular+dissection+of+zebrafish+hematopoiesis.">Cellular dissection of zebrafish hematopoiesis.</a> Methods in Cell Biology. 133, 11-53 (2016).</li><li>Berrun, A. C., Stachura, D. L. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Development+of+an+In+Vitro+Assay+to+Quantitate+Hematopoietic+Stem+and+Progenitor+Cells+(HSPCs)+in+Developing+Zebrafish+Embryos.">Development of an In Vitro Assay to Quantitate Hematopoietic Stem and Progenitor Cells (HSPCs) in Developing Zebrafish Embryos.</a> Journal of Visualized Experiments. (129), e56836 (2017).</li><li>Westerfield, M., Zon, L. I., Detrich, H. 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F., et al. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Analysis+of+thrombocyte+development+in+CD41-GFP+transgenic+zebrafish.">Analysis of thrombocyte development in CD41-GFP transgenic zebrafish.</a> Blood. 106, 3803-3810 (2005).</li><li>Page, D. M., et al. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=An+evolutionarily+conserved+program+of+B-cell+development+and+activation+in+zebrafish.">An evolutionarily conserved program of B-cell development and activation in zebrafish.</a> Blood. 122, e1-e11 (2013).</li><li>Ding, M., et al. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Application+of+High-Throughput+Flow+Cytometry+in+Early+Drug+Discovery:+An+AstraZeneca+Perspective.">Application of High-Throughput Flow Cytometry in Early Drug Discovery: An AstraZeneca Perspective.</a> SLAS Discovery. 23, 719-731 (2018).</li><li>Ding, M., Kaspersson, K., Murray, D., Bardelle, C. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=High-throughput+flow+cytometry+for+drug+discovery:+principles,+applications,+and+case+studies.">High-throughput flow cytometry for drug discovery: principles, applications, and case studies.</a> Drug Discovery Today. 22, 1844-1850 (2017).</li><li>Joslin, J., et al. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=A+Fully+Automated+High-Throughput+Flow+Cytometry+Screening+System+Enabling+Phenotypic+Drug+Discovery.">A Fully Automated High-Throughput Flow Cytometry Screening System Enabling Phenotypic Drug Discovery.</a> SLAS Discovery. 23, 697-707 (2018).</li></ol>

Zebrafish are an excellent model system for studying primitive and definitive vertebrate hematopoiesis. Over the past few decades, multiple assays have been developed and refined, allowing zebrafish to become a quick and economical model for testing drugs, generating and testing genetic mutants, and overall allowing researchers to analyze molecular pathways essential for hematopoiesis. This protocol utilizes embryonic zebrafish which allows quick data collection, the use of less physical space than adult animals, and the...

Blood production (hematopoiesis) is an essential developmental process that first starts in the early embryo. This process begins by generating primitive red blood cells and macrophages directly from mesoderm, and later shifts towards the production of hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs). These stem cells, which are multipotent, generate all of the varieties of mature blood cells in the organism. Capable of self-renewal, the system is continually replenished through these HSPCs. While this process starts early in development, hematopoiesis continues for the life of the animal, providing the ability to transport oxygen to distant sites of the body, to stop bleeding after injury, and to protect the body from infection. The development of this complex system is controlled temporally and spatially during development and any perturbations in blood cell production can be catastrophic for the organism, resulting in anemia, thrombocytopenia, leukopenia, and leukemia.
A popular animal model used for hematopoietic research is the zebrafish (Danio rerio) because they have similar blood development when compared to humans. In fact, many of the genes and molecular pathways used during hematopoiesis are conserved throughout vertebrate evolution, allowing us to learn about human genes by studying zebrafish. Importantly, zebrafish embryos develop outside the body and within 7 days have generated most mature blood cell types, allowing for direct visualization of the hematopoietic system in a short amount of time. Zebrafish are also extremely fecund, which allows researchers to observe a larger number of samples in a short time frame, which is also important for generating reproducible data. The zebrafish&#39;s short generation time and external development provides for easier manipulation and observation during mutagenesis studies1,2,3,4,5 and drug screening6,7,8,9,10. This allows a panel of promising therapeutic compounds for human blood disorders to be quickly and efficiently tested.
Importantly, zebrafish are also genetically amenable, and the genome is sequenced and annotated. This tractability allows reverse genetics techniques such as morpholino- (MO-) mediated knockdown and CRISPR-mediated genetic ablation to be performed. Zebrafish have also proven their utility as a model to perform forward genetic screens; many essential genes and pathways involved in vertebrate blood formation have been discovered in this manner. Numerous methods of observing blood cells have also been developed in zebrafish. While traditional histological staining techniques exist, it is also possible to perform in situ hybridization for blood-specific transcripts. Importantly, numerous transgenic lines of fish also exist whereby fluorescent proteins are expressed by lineage-specific promoters, allowing the labelling of specific blood cells with fluorescent proteins11. This allows researchers to perform up-to-the-minute observation of blood cell genesis, expansion, and regulation in a living organism over time.
Overall, conservation of the hematopoietic system, the presence and easy development of transgenic lines, easy visualization, and short generation time has made the zebrafish an economical, fast, and adaptable model of hematopoiesis. To improve upon the toolbox of techniques available for zebrafish researchers, we developed this assay to robustly quantitate the number of blood cells in embryos. The method involves digesting transgenic animals and performing flow cytometry for fluorescent blood cells. In this way, blood cells from mutant animals, the effect of MO and CRISPR modification, and the effect of small molecules can be quantitatively analyzed in a quick and reproducible manner. These assays are user-friendly and economical ways to enumerate blood cells, allowing examination of their generation, proliferation, and maintenance over time.

<table border="1" fo:keep-together.within-page="1" fo:keep-with-next.within-page="always">
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<td>1.5 ml MCF tube</td>
			<td>FisherBrand</td>
			<td>05-408-129</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>10 mm Polystyrene easygrip Petri dish</td>
			<td>Corning Falcon</td>
			<td>351008</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>5 ml Polystyrene round bottom tube with cell strainer cap</td>
			<td>Corning Falcon</td>
			<td>352235</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>BD FACSAria Fusion flow cytometer</td>
			<td>BD Biosciences</td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Dithiolthreitol (DTT)</td>
			<td>Sigma-Aldrich</td>
			<td>646563</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>DPBS (10x) with Ca2+ and Mg2+</td>
			<td>Life Technologies</td>
			<td>14080-055</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>FBS 500 mL</td>
			<td>Gemini Bio-Products</td>
			<td>100-108</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>HyClone PBS (1x)</td>
			<td>GE Healthcare Life Sciences</td>
			<td>sh30256.01</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Librease</td>
			<td>Roche Sigma-Aldrich</td>
			<td>5401119001</td>
			<td>dissociation protease</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Pronase</td>
			<td>Roche Sigma-Aldrich</td>
			<td>11459643001</td>
			<td>dechorionation protease</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>SYTOX Red Dead Cell Stain</td>
			<td>Invitrogen&#160;</td>
			<td>S34859</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>

using flow cytometry to detect and quantitate altered blood formation in the developing zebrafish

The diversity of cell lineages that comprise mature blood in vertebrate animals arise from the differentiation of hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs). This is a critical process that occurs throughout the lifespan of organisms, and disruption of the molecular pathways involved during embryogenesis can have catastrophic long-term consequences. For a multitude of reasons, zebrafish (Danio rerio) has become a model organism to study hematopoiesis. Zebrafish embryos develop externally, and by 7 days postfertilization (dpf) have produced most of the subtypes of definitive blood cells that will persist for their lifetime. Assays to assess the number of hematopoietic cells have been developed, mainly utilizing specific histological stains, in situ hybridization techniques, and microscopy of transgenic animals that utilize blood cell-specific promoters driving the expression of fluorescent proteins. However, most staining assays and in situ hybridization techniques do not accurately quantitate the number of blood cells present; only large differences in cell numbers are easily visualized. Utilizing transgenic animals and analyzing individuals with fluorescent or confocal microscopy can be performed, but the quantitation of these assays relies on either counting manually or utilizing expensive imaging software, both of which can make errors. Development of additional methods to assess blood cell numbers would be economical, faster, and could even be automated to quickly assess the effect of CRISPR-mediated genetic modification, morpholino-mediated transcript reduction, and the effect of drug compounds that affect hematopoiesis on a large scale. This novel assay to quantitate blood cells is performed by dissociating whole zebrafish embryos and analyzing the amount of fluorescently labelled blood cells present. These assays should allow elucidation of molecular pathways responsible for blood cell generation, expansion, and regulation during embryogenesis, which will allow researchers to further discover novel factors altered during blood diseases, as well as pathways essential during the evolution of vertebrate hematopoiesis.

To enumerate red blood cells in embryonic zebrafish, lcr:GFP16 embryos were injected at the one-cell-stage with PBS, 7.0 ng/nL ism1 MO, or 7.0 ng/nL ism1 MO with 7.0 ng ism1 mRNA12. At 48 hpf they were digested and subjected to flow cytometry analysis. After analyzing the percentage of GFP+ red blood cells from each sample (each sample is 5 randomly selected embryos; Figure ...

Watch this Scientific Journal Video about Using Flow Cytometry to Detect and Quantitate Altered Blood Formation in the Developing Zebrafish at JoVE.com

Using Flow Cytometry to Detect and Quantitate Altered Blood Formation in the Developing Zebrafish

This assay is a simple method to quantitate hematopoietic cells in developing embryonic zebrafish. Blood cells from dissociated zebrafish are subjected to flow cytometry analysis. This allows the detection of blood defects in mutant animals and after genetic modification.

The diversity of cell lineages that comprise mature blood in vertebrate animals arise from the differentiation of hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells ...

This protocol is significant because it allows the knockdown and over expression of genes in a developing fish, and the quantitation of those downstream effects on blood cells. This protocol is quick, easy to perform, economical, and easy to automate with access to the proper instrumentation. Demonstrating this procedure will be Kristen Rueb, an undergraduate researcher in the laboratory.Begin by transferring between five and 200, 48 hours post fertilization embryos into a plastic 10 centimeter Petri dish. Tilt the dish so the embryo sink to the bottom edge, and remove as much E3 medium from the dish as possible. Then add 500 microliters of dechorionation protease to the embryos.After five minutes at room temperature, tip all of the embryos to the bottom edge of the plate again and gently tap the side of the dish, allowing the embryos to gently rub against the bottom of the plate to completely remove their chorions. Using a squeeze bottle add approximately 20 milliliters of E3 medium to dilute the protease, and allow the embryos to settle. Then decant the medium, and rinse the embryos three more times with fresh medium as just demonstrated to remove all traces of the protease.To prepare the embryos for dissociation, use a P1000 pipette to transfer five to 10 embryos into one, 1.5 milliliter micro centrifuge tube, and aspirate the transferred E3 medium. Then add one milliliter of 10 millimolar DTT in E3 medium to the embryonic zebrafish, and place the microcentrifuge tube in a horizontal position for 30 minutes at room temperature to remove the mucus coating. For embryo dissociation, wash the DTT treated embryos three times with one milliliter of DPBS supplemented with calcium and magnesium per wash.Before adding 500 microliters of DPBS supplemented with calcium and magnesium, and five microliters of five milligrams per milliliter, dissociation protease. Then incubate the samples at 37 degrees Celsius on a horizontal orbital shaker at 185 revolutions per minute for 60 minutes. Be sure to periodically check on the embryos, so you don't over digest them.When a not completely homogeneous sample with some solid tissue present can be observed, triturate the embryos with a P1000 pipette until the sample is fully dissociated. To prepare the dissociated zebrafish embryonic cells for flow cytometry, transfer the entire cell sample onto the top reservoir of a five milliliter polystyrene round bottom tube, with a 35 micrometres cell strainer cap. Rinse the cap with four milliliters of PBS without calcium or magnesium, and pellet the cells by centrifugation.Then resuspend the cells in 500 microliters of PBS without calcium and magnesium per tube. For flow cytometric analysis of the zebrafish embryonic cells, gently vortex the cell suspensions before adding a one-to-one thousand dilution of red dead cell stain to each tube. Within 30 minutes of applying the dead cell stain, empty the waste tank, fill the sheath tank with the appropriate solution, and start the fluidic system of the flow cytometer.In the analysis software, draw five plots, and set the first plot to measure forward versus side scatter. Set the forward scatter to linear, and the side scatter to logarithmic. Set the second plot to measure forward scatter height versus forward scatter width, and the third plot to measure scatter height versus side scatter width.Set the fourth plot to measure the red dead cell stain on the x-axis, and side scatter on the y-axis to allow the discrimination of live from dead cells. The fifth plot should be set to measure the fluorophore of choice. When all of the plots have been set, load the sample onto the cytometer and reduce the flow rate so that the cells do not run out to quickly.Adjust the forward and side scatter settings so that the bulk of the cell population can be clearly observed, and draw a gate around the cell population. Label this gate cells. With the second dot plot gated on the cells, gate on forward scatter and the side scatter singlets to exclude doublets.In the fourth plot, adjust the red dead cell stain settings so that there is a clearly negative population. Draw a gate around these cells and label this gate live cells. In the fifth plot, gate on the live cells and draw a gate around the positive cells, then run each sample collecting at least 25, 000 live cell events.When all of the samples have been analyzed, follow the shutdown procedure to turn off the fluidics, refill the sheath tank and empty the waste tank. After analyzing the percentage of GFP positive red blood cells from each embryonic zebrafish sample, the average of all the control group can be calculated. Typically, the average is set as one and all of the percentages are calculated from this reference point.In this representative analysis, it was determined that reducing the ISM1 transcript with a specific morpholino, reduce the number of GFP positive red blood cells present within 48 hours post fertilization embryos. Rescuing this reduction in ISM1 morpholino levels with exogenous mRNA, return the number of red blood cells to normal. Proper digestion on the samples is critical.If you over-digest or under-digest, you will not get the correct results. If a fax machine is available, researchers can collect the blood cells by sorting for in vitro culture, RNA sequencing and quantitative RT-PCR.

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Research

JoVE Journal

Developmental Biology

Analysis of Zebrafish Larvae Skeletal Muscle Integrity with Evans Blue Dye

The zebrafish model is an emerging system for the study of neuromuscular disorders. In the study of neuromuscular diseases, the integrity of the muscle membrane is a critical disease determinant. To date, numerous neuromuscular conditions display degenerating muscle fibers with abnormal membrane integrity; this is most commonly observed in muscular dystrophies. Evans Blue Dye (EBD) is a vital, cell permeable dye that is rapidly taken into degenerating, damaged, or apoptotic cells; in contrast, it is not taken up by cells with an intact membrane. EBD injection is commonly employed to ascertain muscle integrity in mouse models of neuromuscular diseases. However, such EBD experiments require muscle dissection and/or sectioning prior to analysis. In contrast, EBD uptake in zebrafish is visualized in live, intact preparations. Here, we demonstrate a simple and straightforward methodology for performing EBD injections and analysis in live zebrafish. In addition, we demonstrate a co-injection strategy to increase efficacy of EBD analysis. Overall, this video article provides an outline to perform EBD injection and characterization in zebrafish models of neuromuscular disease.

In this study, we describe a straightforward method to perform Evans Blue Dye (EBD) analysis on zebrafish larvae. This technique is a powerful tool for the characterization of skeletal muscle integrity and delineation of zebrafish models of muscular dystrophy, and is a valuable method for the development of novel therapeutics.

The zebrafish model is an emerging system for the study of neuromuscular disorders.  In the study of neuromuscular diseases, the integrity of the muscle ...

Technique to Target Microinjection to the Developing Xenopus Kidney

The embryonic kidney of Xenopus&#160;laevis (frog), the pronephros, consists of a single nephron, and can be used as a model for kidney disease. Xenopus embryos are large, develop externally, and can be easily manipulated by microinjection or surgical procedures. In addition, fate maps have been established for early Xenopus embryos. Targeted microinjection into the individual blastomere that will eventually give rise to an organ or tissue of interest can be used to selectively overexpress or knock down gene expression within this restricted region, decreasing secondary effects in the rest of the developing embryo. In this protocol, we describe how to utilize established Xenopus fate maps to target the developing Xenopus kidney (the pronephros), through microinjection into specific blastomere of 4- and 8-cell embryos. Injection of lineage tracers allows verification of the specific targeting of the injection. After embryos have developed to stage 38 - 40, whole-mount immunostaining is used to visualize pronephric development, and the contribution by targeted cells to the pronephros can be assessed. The same technique can be adapted to target other tissue types in addition to the pronephros.

Technique to Target Microinjection to the Developing Xenopus Kidney

Here, we present a protocol to use fate maps and lineage tracers to target injections into individual blastomeres that give rise to the kidney of Xenopus laevis embryos.

The embryonic kidney of Xenopus&#160;laevis (frog), the pronephros, consists of a single nephron, and can be used as a model for kidney disease. Xenopus ...

Using Light Sheet Fluorescence Microscopy to Image Zebrafish Eye Development

Light sheet fluorescence microscopy (LSFM) is gaining more and more popularity as a method to image embryonic development. The main advantages of LSFM compared to confocal systems are its low phototoxicity, gentle mounting strategies, fast acquisition with high signal to noise ratio and the possibility of imaging samples from various angles (views) for long periods of time. Imaging from multiple views unleashes the full potential of LSFM, but at the same time it can create terabyte-sized datasets. Processing such datasets is the biggest challenge of using LSFM. In this protocol we outline some solutions to this problem. Until recently, LSFM was mostly performed in laboratories that had the expertise to build and operate their own light sheet microscopes. However, in the last three years several commercial implementations of LSFM became available, which are multipurpose and easy to use for any developmental biologist. This article is primarily directed to those researchers, who are not LSFM technology developers, but want to employ LSFM as a tool to answer specific developmental biology questions. 
Here, we use imaging of zebrafish eye development as an example to introduce the reader to LSFM technology and we demonstrate applications of LSFM across multiple spatial and temporal scales. This article describes a complete experimental protocol starting with the mounting of zebrafish embryos for LSFM. We then outline the options for imaging using the commercially available light sheet microscope. Importantly, we also explain a pipeline for subsequent registration and fusion of multiview datasets using an open source solution implemented as a Fiji plugin. While this protocol focuses on imaging the developing zebrafish eye and processing data from a particular imaging setup, most of the insights and troubleshooting suggestions presented here are of general use and the protocol can be adapted to a variety of light sheet microscopy experiments.

Light sheet fluorescence microscopy is an excellent tool for imaging embryonic development. It allows recording of long time-lapse movies of live embryos in near physiological conditions. We demonstrate its application for imaging zebrafish eye development across wide spatio-temporal scales and present a pipeline for fusion and deconvolution of multiview datasets.

Light sheet fluorescence microscopy (LSFM) is gaining more and more popularity as a method to image embryonic development. The main advantages of LSFM ...

Identification Of Erythromyeloid Progenitors And Their Progeny In The Mouse Embryo By Flow Cytometry

Macrophages are professional phagocytes from the innate arm of the immune system. In steady-state, sessile macrophages are found in adult tissues where they act as front line sentinels of infection and tissue damage. While other immune cells are continuously renewed from hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPC) located in the bone marrow, a lineage of macrophages, known as resident macrophages, have been shown to be self-maintained in tissues without input from bone marrow HSPCs. This lineage is exemplified by microglia in the brain, Kupffer cells in the liver and Langerhans cells in the epidermis among others. The intestinal and colon lamina propria are the only adult tissues devoid of HSPC-independent resident macrophages. Recent investigations have identified that resident macrophages originate from the extra-embryonic yolk sac hematopoiesis from progenitor(s) distinct from fetal hematopoietic stem cells (HSC). Among yolk sac definitive hematopoiesis, erythromyeloid progenitors (EMP) give rise both to erythroid and myeloid cells, in particular resident macrophages. EMP are only generated within the yolk sac between E8.5 and E10.5 days of development and they migrate to the fetal liver as early as circulation is connected, where they expand and differentiate until at least E16.5. Their progeny includes erythrocytes, macrophages, neutrophils and mast cells but only EMP-derived macrophages persist until adulthood in tissues. The transient nature of EMP emergence and the temporal overlap with HSC generation renders the analysis of these progenitors difficult. We have established a tamoxifen-inducible fate mapping protocol based on expression of the macrophage cytokine receptor Csf1r promoter to characterize EMP and EMP-derived cells in vivo by flow cytometry.

While infiltrating macrophages are continuously recruited to adult tissues from circulating precursors, resident macrophages seed their tissue during development, where they are maintained without further input from progenitors. The progenitors for resident macrophages were recently identified. Here, we present methods for the genetic fate mapping of the resident macrophage progenitors.

Macrophages are professional phagocytes from the innate arm of the immune system. In steady-state, sessile macrophages are found in adult tissues where ...

Isolating and Analyzing Cells of the Pancreas Mesenchyme by Flow Cytometry

The pancreas is comprised of epithelial cells that are required for food digestion and blood glucose regulation. Cells of the pancreas microenvironment, including endothelial, neuronal, and mesenchymal cells were shown to regulate cell differentiation and proliferation in the embryonic pancreas. In the adult, the function and mass of insulin-producing cells were shown to depend on cells in their microenvironment, including pericyte, immune, endothelial, and neuronal cells. Lastly, changes in the pancreas microenvironment were shown to regulate pancreas tumorigenesis. However, the cues underlying these processes are not fully defined. Therefore, characterizing the different cell types that comprise the pancreas microenvironment and profiling their gene expression are crucial to delineate the tissue development and function under normal and diseased states. Here, we describe a method that allows for the isolation of mesenchymal cells from the pancreas of embryonic, neonatal, and adult mice. This method utilizes the enzymatic digestion of mouse pancreatic tissue and the subsequent fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) or flow-cytometric analysis of labeled cells. Cells can be labeled by either immunostaining for surface markers or by the expression of fluorescent proteins. Cell isolation can facilitate the characterization of genes and proteins expressed in cells of the pancreas mesenchyme. This protocol was successful in isolating and culturing highly enriched mesenchymal cell populations from the embryonic, neonatal, and adult mouse pancreas.

Here, we describe a method for the isolation of cells in the pancreas microenvironment from embryonic, neonatal and adult mouse tissue, focusing on the isolation of mesenchymal cells. This method allows profiling of cell gene expression and protein secretion in order to elucidate the extrinsic signals that regulate pancreas development, function, and tumorigenesis.

The pancreas is comprised of epithelial cells that are required for food digestion and blood glucose regulation. Cells of the pancreas microenvironment, ...

Chondrogenic Pellet Formation from Cord Blood-derived Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells

Human articular cartilage lacks the ability to repair itself. Cartilage degeneration is thus treated not by curative but by conservative treatments. Currently, efforts are being made to regenerate damaged cartilage with ex vivo expanded chondrocytes or bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs). However, the restricted viability and instability of these cells limit their application in cartilage reconstruction. Human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) have received scientific attention as a new alternative for regenerative applications. With unlimited self-renewal ability and multipotency, hiPSCs have been highlighted as a new replacement cell source for cartilage repair. However, obtaining a high quantity of high-quality chondrogenic pellets is a major challenge to their clinical application. In this study, we used embryoid body (EB)-derived outgrowth cells for chondrogenic differentiation. Successful chondrogenesis was confirmed by PCR and staining with alcian blue, toluidine blue, and antibodies against collagen types I and II (COL1A1 and COL2A1, respectively). We provide a detailed method for the differentiation of cord blood mononuclear cell-derived iPSCs (CBMC-hiPSCs) into chondrogenic pellets.

Here, we propose a protocol for chondrogenic differentiation from cord blood mononuclear cell-derived human induced pluripotent stem cells.

Human articular cartilage lacks the ability to repair itself. Cartilage degeneration is thus treated not by curative but by conservative treatments. ...

Development of an In Vitro Assay to Quantitate Hematopoietic Stem and Progenitor Cells (HSPCs) in Developing Zebrafish Embryos

Hematopoiesis is an essential cellular process in which hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs) differentiate into the multitude of different cell lineages that comprise mature blood. Isolation and identification of these HSPCs is difficult because they are defined ex post facto; they can only be defined after their differentiation into specific cell lineages. Over the past few decades, the zebrafish (Danio rerio) has become a model organism to study hematopoiesis. Zebrafish embryos develop ex utero, and by 48 h post-fertilization (hpf) have generated definitive HSPCs. Assays to assess HSPC differentiation and proliferation capabilities have been developed, utilizing transplantation and subsequent reconstitution of the hematopoietic system in addition to visualizing specialized transgenic lines with confocal microscopy. However, these assays are cost prohibitive, technically difficult, and time consuming for many laboratories. Development of an in vitro model to assess HSPCs would be cost effective, quicker, and present fewer difficulties compared to previously described methods, allowing laboratories to quickly assess mutagenesis and drug screens that affect HSPC biology. This novel in vitro assay to assess HSPCs is performed by plating dissociated whole zebrafish embryos and adding exogenous factors that promote only HSPC differentiation and proliferation. Embryos are dissociated into single cells and plated with HSPC-supportive colony stimulating factors that cause them to generate colony forming units (CFUs) that arise from a single progenitor cell. These assays should allow more careful examination of the molecular pathways responsible for HSPC proliferation, differentiation, and regulation, which will allow researchers to understand the underpinnings of vertebrate hematopoiesis and its dysregulation during disease.

Development of an In Vitro Assay to Quantitate Hematopoietic Stem and Progenitor Cells HSPCs in Developing Zebrafish Embryos

Here, we present a simple method to quantitate hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs) in embryonic zebrafish. HSPCs from dissociated zebrafish are plated in methylcellulose with supportive factors, differentiating into mature blood. This allows the detection of blood defects and allows drug screening to be easily conducted.

Hematopoiesis is an essential cellular process in which hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs) differentiate into the multitude of different cell ...

Use of Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation to Assess the Origin of Myelodysplastic Syndrome

Myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) are a diverse group of hematopoietic stem cell disorders that are defined by ineffective hematopoiesis, peripheral blood cytopenias, dysplasia, and a propensity for transformation to acute leukemia. NUP98-HOXD13 (NHD13) transgenic mice recapitulate human MDS in terms of peripheral blood cytopenias, dysplasia, and transformation to acute leukemia. We previously demonstrated that MDS could be transferred from a genetically engineered mouse with MDS to wild-type recipients by transplanting MDS bone marrow nucleated cells (BMNC). To more clearly understand the MDS cell of origin, we have developed approaches to transplant specific, immunophenotypically defined hematopoietic subsets. In this article, we describe the process of isolating and transplanting specific populations of hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells. Following transplantation, we describe approaches to assess the efficiency of transplantation and persistence of the donor MDS cells.

We describe the use of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) to assess the malignant potential of genetically engineered hematopoietic cells. HSCT is useful for evaluating various malignant hematopoietic cells in vivo as well as generating a large cohort of mice with myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) or leukemia to evaluate novel therapies.

Myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) are a diverse group of hematopoietic stem cell disorders that are defined by ineffective hematopoiesis, peripheral blood ...

Real-time Live-cell Flow Cytometry to Investigate Calcium Influx, Pore Formation, and Phagocytosis by P2X7 Receptors in Adult Neural Progenitor Cells

Live-cell flow cytometry is increasingly used among cell biologists to quantify biological processes in a living cell culture. This protocol describes a method whereby live-cell flow cytometry is extended upon to analyze the multiple functions of P2X7 receptor activation in real-time. Using a time module installed on a flow cytometer, live-cell functionality can be assessed and plotted over a given time period to explore the kinetics of calcium influx, transmembrane pore formation, and phagocytosis. This simple method is advantageous as all three canonical functions of the P2X7 receptor can be assessed using one machine, and the gathered data plotted over time provides information on the entire live-cell population rather than single-cell recordings often obtained using technically challenging patch-clamp methods. Calcium influx experiments use a calcium indicator dye, while P2X7 pore formation assays rely on ethidium bromide being allowed to pass through the transmembrane pore formed upon high agonist concentrations. Yellow-green (YG) latex beads are utilized to measure phagocytosis. Specific agonists and antagonists are applied to investigate the effects of P2X7 receptor activity. Individually, these methods can be modified to provide quantitative data on any number of calcium channels and purinergic and scavenger receptors. Taken together, they highlight how the use of real-time live-cell flow cytometry is a rapid, cost-effective, reproducible, and quantifiable method to investigate P2X7 receptor function.

Providing single-cell sensitivity, real-time flow cytometry is uniquely suited to quantify multimodal receptor functions of live cultures. Using adult neural progenitor cells, the P2X7 receptor function was assessed via calcium influx detected by calcium indicator dye, transmembrane pore formation by ethidium bromide uptake, and phagocytosis using fluorescent latex beads.

Live-cell flow cytometry is increasingly used among cell biologists to quantify biological processes in a living cell culture. This protocol describes a ...

Whole-Mount In Situ Hybridization in Zebrafish Embryos and Tube Formation Assay in iPSC-ECs to Study the Role of Endoglin in Vascular Development

Vascular development is determined by the sequential expression of specific genes, which can be studied by performing in situ hybridization assays in zebrafish during different developmental stages. To investigate the role of endoglin(eng) in vessel formation during the development of hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia&#160;(HHT), morpholino-mediated targeted knockdown of eng in zebrafish are used to study its temporal expression and associated functions. Here, whole-mount in situ RNA hybridization (WISH) is employed for the analysis of eng and its downstream genes in zebrafish embryos. Also, tube formation assays are performed in HHT patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cell-differentiated&#160;endothelial cells (iPSC-ECs; with eng mutations). A specific signal amplifying system using the whole amount In Situ Hybridization &#8211; WISH provides higher resolution and lower background results compared to traditional methods. To obtain a better signal, the post-fixation time is adjusted to 30 min after probe hybridization. Because fluorescence staining is not sensitive in zebrafish embryos, it is replaced with diaminobezidine (DAB) staining here. In this protocol, HHT&#160;patient-derived iPSC lines containing an eng mutation are differentiated into endothelial cells. After coating a plate with basement membrane matrix for 30 min at 37 &#176;C, iPSC-ECs are seeded as a monolayer into wells and kept at 37 &#176;C for 3 h. Then, the tube length and number of branches are calculated using microscopic images. Thus, with this improved WISH protocol, it is shown that reduced eng expression affects endothelial progenitor formation in zebrafish embryos. This is further confirmed by tube formation assays using iPSC-ECs derived from a patient with HHT. These assays confirm the role for eng in early vascular development.

Presented here is a protocol for whole-mount in situ RNA hybridization analysis in zebrafish and tube formation assay in patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cell-derived endothelial cells to study the role of endoglin in vascular formation.

Vascular development is determined by the sequential expression of specific genes, which can be studied by performing in situ hybridization assays in ...