Name: use of primary cultured hippocampal neurons to study the assembly of axon initial segments
Uploaded: 2021-02-12T13:30:00
Description: Watch this Scientific Journal Video about Use of Primary Cultured Hippocampal Neurons to Study the Assembly of Axon Initial Segments at JoVE.com

We thank Dr. Gary Banker for suggestion on neuronal culture protocol. This work is supported by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, a grant from NIH, and a George Barth Geller endowed professorship (V.B.).

NOTE: This culture method of hippocampal neurons from postnatal 0-day ANK3-E22/23f/f mice is adapted from Gary Banker&#8217;s glia/neuron co-culture system. Therefore, it is critical to perform all steps after dissection in a clean hood using sterilized tools. This protocol takes up to 1 month. The workflow is displayed in Figure 3. The protocol follows the animal guidelines of Duke University.
1. Preparing of coverslips and neuronal plating dish...

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The assembly of AIS is organized by 480 kDa ankyrin-G. However, ankyrin-G has shorter isoforms that can target to the AIS of wildtype neurons, which may lead to difficulty in interpretation of structure-function analyses of AIS assembly. Here we present a method using neurons from ANK3-E22/23-flox mice that allows study of de novo assembly of the AIS. By transfecting with Cre-BFP at 3 div, we eliminate the all endogenous isoforms of ankyrin-G. We could also co-transfect 480 kDa ankyrin-G to rescue the f...

The axon initial segment is located at the proximal axon in most vertebrate neurons. Functionally, AIS is where action potentials are initiated due to the high-density of voltage-gated sodium channels in this region. AIS of some excitatory neurons are also targeted by inhibitory interneurons through forming GABAergic synapses1,2,3. Therefore, AIS is a critical site to integrate cell signaling and modulate the excitability of neurons. AIS is normally 20-60 &#956;m in length and located within 20 &#956;m of the cell body. The length and position of AIS varies in neurons across brain regions, as well as in different developmental stages of the same neuron4,5. Accumulated evidence suggested that the composition and position of AIS are dynamic in responding to the change of neuronal activity4,5,6,7.
480 kDa ankyrin-G is the master organizer of AIS. 480 kDa ankyrin-G is a membrane associated adaptor protein that directly binds to voltage gated sodium channels as well as other major AIS proteins including beta4-spectrin, KCNQ2/3 channels that modulate sodium channel activity8,9, and 186 kDa neurofascin, a L1CAM that directs GABAergic synapses to the AIS2,10. 480 kDa ankyrin-G shares canonical ankyrin domains found in the short 190 kDa ankyrin-G isoform (ANK repeats, spectrin binding domain, regulatory domain), but are distinguished by a giant exon that is found only in vertebrates and is specifically expressed in neurons (Figure 1A)11,12. The 480 kDa ankyrin-G neuron specific domain (NSD) is required for AIS formation12. The 190 kDa ankyrin-G does not promote AIS assembly or target AIS in ankyrin-G-null neurons12. However, 190 kDa ankyrin-G is concentrated at the AIS containing 480 kDa ankyrin-G12. This ability of the 190 kDa ankyrin-G to target pre-assembled AIS of wildtype neurons has been a source of confusion in the literature and has slowed appreciation of the critical specialized functions of the 480 kDa ankyrin-G in AIS assembly. Therefore, it is critical to study AIS assembly in ankyrin-G-null neurons that lack a pre-assembled AIS.
Here, we present a method to study the assembly and structure of the AIS using cultured hippocampal neurons from ANK3-E22/23-flox mice that eliminates all isoforms of ankyrin-G13 (Figure 1B). By transfecting neurons with a Cre-BFP construct before AIS is assembled, we generated ankyrin-G-deficient neurons completely lacking an AIS (Figure 1B, Figure 2). The assembly of AIS is fully rescued following co-transfection of 480 kDa ankyrin-G-GFP plasmid with a Cre-BFP plasmid. This method provides a way to study the AIS assembly in a non-pre-assembled AIS environment. We also modified the glia-neuron co-culture system from Gary Banker without using antibiotics, previously designed for embryonic day 18 neurons, for application to postnatal mouse neurons and adapted a AIS quantitation method to average AIS measurements from multiple neurons to normalize the variation of AIS14,15.

<table>
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<td>10xHBSS</td>
			<td>Thermo Fisher Scientific</td>
			<td>14065-056</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>18mm coverglass (1.5D)</td>
			<td>Fisher Scientific</td>
			<td>12-545-84-1D</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>190kDa ankyrin-G-GFP</td>
			<td>Addgene</td>
			<td>#31059</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>2.5% Tripsin without phenol red</td>
			<td>Thermo Fisher Scientific</td>
			<td>14065-056</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>480kDa ankyrin-G-GFP</td>
			<td>lab made</td>
			<td>Provide upon request</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>ANK3-E22/23f/f mice</td>
			<td>JAX</td>
			<td>Stock No: 029797</td>
			<td>B6.129-Ank3tm2.1Bnt/J;</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>B27 serum-free supplement</td>
			<td>Thermo Fisher Scientific</td>
			<td>A3582801</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Boric acid</td>
			<td>Sigma-Aldrich</td>
			<td>B6768</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Cell strainer with 70-mm mesh</td>
			<td>BD Biosciences</td>
			<td>352350</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Ceramic coverslip-staining rack</td>
			<td>Thomas Scientific</td>
			<td>8542E40</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Cre-BFP</td>
			<td>Addgene</td>
			<td>#128174</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>D-Glucose</td>
			<td>Sigma-Aldrich</td>
			<td>G7021</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>DMEM</td>
			<td>Thermo Fisher Scientific</td>
			<td>11995073</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>GlutaMAX-I supplement</td>
			<td>Thermo Fisher Scientific</td>
			<td>A1286001</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Lipofectamine 2000</td>
			<td>Thermo Fisher Scientific</td>
			<td>11668030</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>MEM with Earle&#8217;s salts and L-glutamine</td>
			<td>Thermo Fisher Scientific</td>
			<td>11095-080</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Neurobasal Medium</td>
			<td>Thermo Fisher Scientific</td>
			<td>21103-049</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Nitric acid 70%</td>
			<td>Sigma-Aldrich</td>
			<td>225711</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Opti-MEM I Reduced Serum Medium</td>
			<td>Thermo Fisher Scientific</td>
			<td>31985062</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Paraformaldehyde</td>
			<td>Sigma-Aldrich</td>
			<td>P6148</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Penicillin-streptomycin</td>
			<td>Thermo Fisher Scientific</td>
			<td>15140122</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Poly-L-lysine hydrochloride</td>
			<td>Sigma-Aldrich</td>
			<td>26124-78-7</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Potassium hydroxide</td>
			<td>Sigma-Aldrich</td>
			<td>1310-58-3</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>

use of primary cultured hippocampal neurons to study the assembly of axon initial segments

Neuronal axon initial segments (AIS) are sites of initiation of action potentials and have been extensively studied for their molecular structure, assembly and activity-dependent plasticity. Giant ankyrin-G, the master organizer of AIS, directly associates with membrane-spanning voltage gated sodium (VSVG) and potassium channels (KCNQ2/3), as well as 186 kDa neurofascin, a L1CAM cell adhesion molecule. Giant ankyrin-G also binds to and recruits cytoplasmic AIS molecules including beta-4-spectrin, and the microtubule-binding proteins, EB1/EB3 and Ndel1. Giant ankyrin-G is sufficient to rescue AIS formation in ankyrin-G deficient neurons. Ankyrin-G also includes a smaller 190 kDa isoform located at dendritic spines instead of the AIS, which is incapable of targeting to the AIS or rescuing the AIS in ankyrin-G-deficient neurons. Here, we described a protocol using cultured hippocampal neurons from ANK3-E22/23-flox mice, which, when transfected with Cre-BFP exhibit loss of all isoform of ankyrin-G and impair the formation of AIS. Combined a modified Banker glia/neuron co-culture system, we developed a method to transfect ankyrin-G null neurons with a 480 kDa ankyrin-G-GFP plasmid, which is sufficient to rescue the formation of AIS. We further employ a quantification method, developed by Salzer and colleagues to deal with variation in AIS distance from the neuronal cell bodies that occurs in hippocampal neuron cultures. This protocol allows quantitative studies of the de novo assembly and dynamic behavior of AIS.

A complete set of experiment should include Cre-BFP only transfection as negative control, Cre-BFP plus 480 kDa ankyrin-G co-transfection as positive control and a non-transfected condition as technique control. In Cre-BFP only control, transfected neurons lack the accumulation of AIS markers, including ankyrin-G (ankG), beta4-spectrin (&#946;4), neurofascin (Nf) and voltage gated sodium channels (VSVG) (Figure 4A)16. In contrast, Cre and 480 kDa ankyrin-G co-transfec...

Watch this Scientific Journal Video about Use of Primary Cultured Hippocampal Neurons to Study the Assembly of Axon Initial Segments at JoVE.com

Use of Primary Cultured Hippocampal Neurons to Study the Assembly of Axon Initial Segments

Here, we described a protocol to quantitatively study the assembly and structure of the axon initial segments (AIS) of hippocampal neurons that lack pre-assembled AIS due to the absence of a giant ankyrin-G.

Neuronal axon initial segments (AIS) are sites of initiation of action potentials and have been extensively studied for their molecular structure, ...

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