Name: an in vitro approach to study mitochondrial dysfunction: a cybrid model
Uploaded: 2022-03-09T14:00:00
Description: Watch this Scientific Journal Video about An In Vitro Approach to Study Mitochondrial Dysfunction: A Cybrid Model at JoVE.com

This study was carried out in the Center for the Study of Mitochondrial Pediatric Diseases (http://www.mitopedia.org), funded by the Mariani Foundation. VT is a member of the European Reference Network for Rare Neuromuscular Diseases (ERN EURO-NMD).

NOTE: The use of human fibroblasts may require ethical approval. Fibroblasts used in this study were derived from MD patients and stored in the Institutional biobank in compliance with ethical requirements. Informed consent was provided for the use of the cells. Perform all cell culture procedures under a sterile laminar flow cabinet at room temperature (RT, 22-25 &#176;C). Use sterile-filtered solutions suitable for cell culture and sterile equipment. Grow all cell lines in a humidified incubator at 37 &#176;C with 5% C...

<ol>
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The mtDNA has a very high mutation rate compared to nDNA because of the lack of protective histones and its location close to the respiratory chain, which exposes the molecule to damaging oxidative effects not efficiently counteracted by the repair systems16. The first pathogenic mtDNA mutations were identified in 198817,18, and since then, a large number of mutations have been described. NGS technology is a relevant approach to screen the...

Mitochondrial disorders (MDs) are a group of multisystem syndromes caused by an impairment in mitochondrial functions due to mutations in either nuclear (nDNA) or mitochondrial (mtDNA) DNA1. They are among the most common inherited metabolic diseases, with a prevalence of 1:5,000. mtDNA-associated diseases follow the rules of mitochondrial genetics: maternal inheritance, heteroplasmy and threshold effect, and mitotic segregation2. Human mtDNA is a double-stranded DNA circle of 16.6 kb, which contains a short control region with sequences needed for replication and transcription, 13 protein-coding genes (all subunits of the respiratory chain), 22 tRNA, and 2 rRNA genes3.
In healthy individuals, there is one single mtDNA genotype (homoplasmy), whereas more than one genotype coexists (heteroplasmy) in pathological conditions. Deleterious heteroplasmic mutations must overcome a critical threshold to disrupt OXPHOS and cause diseases that can affect any organ at any age4. The dual genetics of OXPHOS dictates inheritance: autosomal recessive or dominant and X-linked for nDNA mutations, maternal for mtDNA mutations, plus sporadic cases both for nDNA and mtDNA.
At the beginning of the mitochondrial medicine era, a landmark experiment by King and Attardi5 established the basis to understand the origin of a mutation responsible for an MD by creating hybrid cells containing nuclei from tumor cell lines in which mtDNA was entirely depleted (rho0 cells) and mitochondria from patients with MDs. Next-generation sequencing (NGS) techniques were not available at that time, and it was not easy to determine whether a mutation was present in the nuclear or mitochondrial genome. The method, described in 1989, was then used by several researchers working in the field of mitochondrial medicine6,7,8,9; a detailed protocol has been recently published10, but no video has been made yet. Why should such a protocol be relevant nowadays when NGS could precisely and rapidly identify where a mutation is located? The answer is that cybrid generation is still the state-of-the-art protocol to understand the pathogenic role of any novel mtDNA mutation, correlate the percentage of heteroplasmy with the severity of the disease, and perform a biochemical investigation in a homogeneous nuclear system in which the contribution of the autochthonous nuclear background of the patient is absent11,12,13.
This protocol describes how to obtain cytoplasts from confluent, patient-derived fibroblasts grown in 35 mm Petri dishes. Centrifugation of the dishes in the presence of cytochalasin B allows the isolation of enucleated cytoplasts, which are then fused with rho0 cells in the presence of polyethylene glycol (PEG). The resulting cybrids are then cultivated in selective medium until clones arise. The representative results section shows an example of molecular characterization of the resulting cybrids to prove that the mtDNA is identical to that of the donor patients&#39; fibroblasts and that the nDNA is identical to the nuclear DNA of the tumoral rho0 cell line.

<table border="1" fo:keep-together.within-page="1" fo:keep-with-next.within-page="always">
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<td>5-Bromo-2&#39;-Deoxyuridine</td>
			<td>Sigma-Aldrich (Merck)</td>
			<td>B5002-500MG</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>6 well Plates</td>
			<td>Corning</td>
			<td>3516</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>96 well Plates</td>
			<td>Corning</td>
			<td>3596</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Blood and Cell Culture DNA extraction kit</td>
			<td>QIAGEN</td>
			<td>13323</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Centrifuge</td>
			<td>Beckman Coulter</td>
			<td>Avanti J-25</td>
			<td>7,200 rcf, 37 &#176;C</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Centrifuge bottles, 250 mL</td>
			<td>Beckman Coulter</td>
			<td>356011</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Cytochalasin B from Drechslera dematioidea</td>
			<td>Sigma-Aldrich (Merck)</td>
			<td>C2743-200UL</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Dialyzed FBS</td>
			<td>Gibco</td>
			<td>26400-036 100mL</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>DMEM High Glucose (w/o L-Glutamine W/Sodium Pyruvate)</td>
			<td>EuroClone</td>
			<td>ECB7501L</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Dulbecco&#39;s Phosphate Buffered Saline - PBS (w/o Calcium w/o Magnesium)</td>
			<td>EuroClone</td>
			<td>ECB4004L</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Ethanol Absolute Anhydrous</td>
			<td>Carlo Erba</td>
			<td>414601</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>FetalClone III (Bovine Serum Product)</td>
			<td>Cytiva - HyClone Laboratories</td>
			<td>SH30109.03</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Glass pasteur pipettes</td>
			<td>VWR</td>
			<td>M4150NO250SP4</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Inverted Research Microscope For Live Cell Microscopy</td>
			<td>Nikon</td>
			<td>ECLIPSE TE200</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>JA-14 Fixed-Angle Aluminum Rotor</td>
			<td>Beckman Coulter</td>
			<td>339247</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Laboratory autoclave Vapormatic 770</td>
			<td>Labotech</td>
			<td>29960014</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>L-Glutamine 200 mM (100x)</td>
			<td>EuroClone</td>
			<td>ECB 3000D</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Minimum Essential Medium MEM</td>
			<td>Euroclone</td>
			<td>ECB2071L</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>MycoAlert Mycoplasma Detection Kit</td>
			<td>Lonza</td>
			<td>LT07-318</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>PEG (Polyethylene glicol solution)</td>
			<td>Sigma-Aldrich (Merck)</td>
			<td>P7181-5X5ML</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Penicillin-Streptomycin (solution 100x)</td>
			<td>EuroClone</td>
			<td>ECB3001D</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Primo TC Dishes 100 mm</td>
			<td>EuroClone</td>
			<td>ET2100</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Primo TC Dishes 35 mm</td>
			<td>EuroClone</td>
			<td>ET2035</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Sodium Pyruvate 100 mM</td>
			<td>EuroClone</td>
			<td>ECM0542D</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Stereomicroscope</td>
			<td>Nikon</td>
			<td>SMZ1000</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Trypsin 2.5% in HBSS</td>
			<td>EuroClone</td>
			<td>ECB3051D</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Uridine</td>
			<td>Sigma-Aldrich (Merck)</td>
			<td>U3003-5G</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>

an in vitro approach to study mitochondrial dysfunction: a cybrid model

Deficiency of the mitochondrial respiratory chain complexes that carry out oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) is the biochemical marker of human mitochondrial disorders. From a genetic point of view, the OXPHOS represents a unique example because it results from the complementation of two distinct genetic systems: nuclear DNA (nDNA) and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA). Therefore, OXPHOS defects can be due to mutations affecting nuclear and mitochondrial encoded genes.
The groundbreaking work by King and Attardi, published in 1989, showed that human cell lines depleted of mtDNA (named rho0) could be repopulated by exogenous mitochondria to obtain the so-called &#34;transmitochondrial cybrids.&#34; Thanks to these cybrids containing mitochondria derived from patients with mitochondrial disorders (MDs) and nuclei from rho0 cells, it is possible to verify whether a defect is mtDNA- or nDNA-related. These cybrids are also a powerful tool to validate the pathogenicity of a mutation and study its impact at a biochemical level. This paper presents a detailed protocol describing cybrid generation, selection, and characterization.

Generating cybrids requires 3 days of laboratory work plus a selection period (~2 weeks) and additional 1-2 weeks for the growth of clones. The critical steps are the quality of cytoplasts and the selection period. The morphology of cybrids resembles that of the rho0 donor cells. Assignment of the correct mtDNA and nDNA in the cybrids is mandatory to confirm the identity of the cells. An example is given in Figure 2. In this case, we generated cybrids starting from fibroblasts der...

Watch this Scientific Journal Video about An In Vitro Approach to Study Mitochondrial Dysfunction: A Cybrid Model at JoVE.com

An In Vitro Approach to Study Mitochondrial Dysfunction: A Cybrid Model

Transmitochondrial cybrids are hybrid cells obtained by fusing mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA)-depleted cells (rho0 cells) with cytoplasts (enucleated cells) derived from patients affected by mitochondrial disorders. They allow the determination of the nuclear or mitochondrial origin of the disease, evaluation of biochemical activity, and confirmation of the pathogenetic role of mtDNA-related variants.

An In Vitro Approach to Study Mitochondrial Dysfunction: A Cybrid Model

Deficiency of the mitochondrial respiratory chain complexes that carry out oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) is the biochemical marker of human ...

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