发育生物学


分类

现刊
0 Q&A 63 Views Dec 5, 2023

The hypothalamus is an evolutionarily ancient part of the vertebrate ventral forebrain that integrates the dialogue between environment, peripheral body, and brain to centrally govern an array of physiologies and behaviours. Characterizing the mechanisms that control hypothalamic development illuminates both hypothalamic organization and function. Critical to the ability to unravel such mechanisms is the skill to isolate hypothalamic tissue, enabling both its acute analysis and its analysis after explant and culture. Tissue explants, in which cells develop in a manner analogous to their in vivo counterparts, are a highly effective tool to investigate the extrinsic signals and tissue-intrinsic self-organising features that drive hypothalamic development. The hypothalamus, however, is induced and patterned at neural tube stages of development, when the tissue is difficult to isolate, and its resident cells complex to define. No single molecular marker distinguishes early hypothalamic progenitor subsets from other cell types in the neural tube, and so their accurate dissection requires the simultaneous analysis of multiple proteins or mRNAs, techniques that were previously limited by antibody availability or were arduous to perform. Here, we overcome these challenges. We describe methodologies to precisely isolate early hypothalamic tissue from the embryonic chick at three distinct patterning stages and to culture hypothalamic explants in three-dimensional gels. We then describe optimised protocols for the analysis of embryos, isolated embryonic tissue, or cultured hypothalamic explants by multiplex hybridisation chain reaction. These methods can be applied to other vertebrates, including mouse, and to other tissue types.


Key features

• Detailed protocols for enzymatic isolation of embryonic chick hypothalamus at three patterning stages; methods can be extended to other vertebrates and tissues.

• Brief methodologies for three-dimensional culture of hypothalamic tissue explants.

• Optimised protocols for multiplex hybridisation chain reaction for analysis of embryos, isolated embryonic tissues, or explants.


Graphical overview


0 Q&A 46 Views Dec 5, 2023

Neovascular diseases of the retina, such as diabetic retinopathy (DR) and age-related macular degeneration (AMD), are proliferative retinopathies involving the growth of new blood vessels on the retina, which in turn causes impairment and potential loss of vision. A drawback of conventional angiogenesis assays is that they are not representative of the angiogenic processes in the retina. In the retina, the new blood vessels grow (from pre-existing blood vessels) and migrate into a non-perfused region of the eye including the inner limiting membrane of the retina and the vitreous, both of which contribute to vision loss. The Matrigel Duplex Assay (MDA) measures the migration of angiogenic capillaries from a primary Matrigel layer to a secondary Matrigel layer, which resembles the pathological angiogenesis in AMD and DR. The methodology of MDA is comprised of two steps. In the first step, the human retinal microvascular endothelial cells (HRMECs) are mixed with phenol red–containing Matrigel (in a 1:1 ratio) and seeded in the center of an 8-well chamber slide. After 24 h, a second layer of phenol red–free Matrigel is overlaid over the first layer. Over the course of the next 24 h, the HRMECs invade from the primary Matrigel layer to the secondary layer. Subsequently, the angiogenic sprouts are visualized by brightfield phase contrast microscopy and quantified by ImageJ software. The present manuscript measures the angiogenesis-inhibitory activity of the Src kinase inhibitor PP2 in primary HRMECs using the MDA. The MDA may be used for multiple applications like screening anti-angiogenic drugs, measuring the pro-angiogenic activity of growth factors, and elucidating signaling pathways underlying retinal angiogenesis in normal and disease states.


Graphical overview


往期刊物
0 Q&A 201 Views Oct 5, 2023

Fertilized teleost fish eggs are a complex formation, in which dividing cells arelocated in a small point in the entire volume of eggs. Isolating embryonic cellscan be considered a necessary step in the research of developmentalpeculiarities of fish cells at the earliest stages of embryogenesis beforeembryo formation. The main advantages of the offered protocol are rapidisolation, no enzymes, and overall low cost compared to other protocols. Theprotocol is suitable for the isolation of embryonic cells from medium-sized eggsat the stages of blastula or gastrula, for studies in a variety of applications(e.g., microscopy, flow cytometry, and other methods). Fertilized nelma eggs(Stenodus leucichthys nelma) are used in the protocol as a model.


Key features

• Fast and cheap isolation of cells from fish eggs at early stages (blastula orgastrula).

• Applicable for most of the methods for cell study (any staining, microscopy, flowcytometry, etc.).

• Can be applied to other teleost fish eggs with medium egg diameter of 3–4mm.


Graphical overview


0 Q&A 444 Views Sep 5, 2023

The centrosome governs many pan-cellular processes including cell division, migration, and cilium formation. However, very little is known about its cell type-specific protein composition and the sub-organellar domains where these protein interactions take place. Here, we outline a protocol for the spatial interrogation of the centrosome proteome in human cells, such as those differentiated from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), through co-immunoprecipitation of protein complexes around selected baits that are known to reside at different structural parts of the centrosome, followed by mass spectrometry. The protocol describes expansion and differentiation of human iPSCs to dorsal forebrain neural progenitors and cortical projection neurons, harvesting and lysis of cells for protein isolation, co-immunoprecipitation with antibodies against selected bait proteins, preparation for mass spectrometry, processing the mass spectrometry output files using MaxQuant software, and statistical analysis using Perseus software to identify the enriched proteins by each bait. Given the large number of cells needed for the isolation of centrosome proteins, this protocol can be scaled up or down by modifying the number of bait proteins and can also be carried out in batches. It can potentially be adapted for other cell types, organelles, and species as well.


Graphical overview



An overview of the protocol for analyzing the spatial protein composition of the centrosome in human induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived neural cells. ① Human iPSCs are expanded, which serve as the starting cell population for the neural induction (Sections A, B, and C in Procedure). ② Neurons are induced and differentiated for 40 days (Section D in Procedure), in at least four biological replicates. ③ Total protein is isolated either at 15th or 40th day of differentiation, for neural stem cells and neurons, respectively (Sections E and F in Procedure). ④ Selected bait proteins are immunoprecipitated using the respective antibodies (Sections G and H in Procedure). ⑤ Co-immunoprecipitated samples are analyzed with mass spectrometry (Section I in Procedure). ⑥ Mass spectrometry output (.RAW) files are processed using MaxQuant software to calculate intensities (Section A in Data analysis). ⑦ The resulting data are pre-processed, filtered, and statistically analyzed using Perseus and R software (Sections B and C in Data analysis) ⑧ Further analysis is done using software or web tools such as Cytoscape or STRING to gain biological insights (Sections D and E in Data analysis).

0 Q&A 467 Views Sep 5, 2023

Congenital heart disease (CHD) is often associated with myogenic defects. During heart development, cardiomyocyte growth requires essential cues from extrinsic factors such as insulin-like growth factor 2 (IGF-2). To determine whether and how growth factors account for embryonic cardiomyocyte proliferation, isolation followed by culturing of embryonic cardiomyocytes can be utilized as a useful tool for heart developmental studies. Current protocols for isolating cardiomyocytes from the heart do not include a cardiomyocyte-specific reporter to distinguish cardiomyocytes from other cell types. To optimize visualization of cardiomyocyte proliferation, our protocol utilizes a Tnnt2-promoter-driven H2B-GFP knock-in mouse model (TNNT2H2B-GFP/+) for in vitro visualization of nuclear-tagged cardiomyocyte-specific fluorescence. A cardiomyocyte-specific genetic reporter paired with an effective proliferation assay improves the reproducibility of mechanistic studies by increasing the accuracy of cell identification, proliferated cell counting, and cardiomyocyte tracking.


Key features

• This protocol refines previous methods of cardiomyocyte isolation to specifically target embryonic cardiomyocytes.

• UsesH2B-GFP/+cardiomyocyte reporters as identified by Yan et al. (2016).

• Traces cell proliferation with Phospho-Histone 3 (p-H3) assay.

• Has applications in assessing the role of growth factors in cardiomyocyte proliferation.


Graphical overview


0 Q&A 548 Views Jan 5, 2023

Utilizingresources available from the mother's body to guarantee healthy offspring growth is the fundamental reproductive strategy. Recently, we showed that a class of the largest extracellular vesicles known as exophers, which are responsible for the removal of neurotoxic components from neurons (Melentijevic et al., 2017) and damaged mitochondria from cardiomyocytes (Nicolás-Ávila et al., 2020), are released by the Caenorhabditis elegans hermaphrodite body wall muscles (BWM), to support embryonic growth (Turek et al., 2021). Employing worms expressing fluorescent reporters in BWM cells, we found that exopher formation (exophergenesis) is sex-specific and fertility-dependent. Moreover, exophergenesis is regulated by the developing embryo in utero, and exophers serve as transporters for muscle-generated yolk proteins, which can be used to nourish the next generation. Given the specific regulation of muscular exophergenesis, and the fact that muscle-generated exophers are much larger than neuronal ones and have different targeting, their identification and quantification required a modified approach from that designed for neuronal-derived exophers (Arnold et al., 2020). Here, we present a methodology for assessing and quantifying muscle-derived exophers that can be easily extended to determine their function and regulation in various biological contexts.


Graphical abstract


0 Q&A 235 Views Jan 5, 2023

Advances in imaging technology offer new opportunities in developmental biology. To observe the development of internal structures, microtome cross-sectioning followed by H&E staining on glass slides is a common procedure; however, this technique can be destructive, and artifacts can be introduced during the process. In this protocol, we describe a less invasive procedure with which we can stain insect samples and obtain reconstructed three-dimensional images using micro-computed tomography, or micro-CT (µCT). Specifically, we utilize the fungus-farming ambrosia beetle species Euwallacea validus to observe the morphology of mycangia, a critical internal organ with which beetles transport fungal symbionts. Not only this protocol is ideal to observe mycangia, our staining/scanning procedure can also be applied to observe other delicate tissues and small organs in arthropods.


Graphical abstract


0 Q&A 802 Views Nov 20, 2022

During an animal's development, a large number of cells undergo apoptosis, a suicidal form of death. These cells are promptly phagocytosed by other cells and degraded inside phagosomes. The recognition, engulfment, and degradation of apoptotic cells is an evolutionarily conserved process occurring in all metazoans. Recently, we discovered a novel event in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans: the double-membrane autophagosomes are recruited to the surface of phagosomes; subsequently, the outer membrane of an autophagosome fuses with the phagosomal membrane, allowing the inner vesicle to enter the phagosomal lumen and accumulate there over time. This event facilitates the degradation of the apoptotic cell inside the phagosome. During this study, we developed a real-time imaging protocol monitoring the recruitment and fusion of autophagosomes to phagosomes over two hours during embryonic development. This protocol uses a deconvolution-based microscopic imaging system with an optimized setting to minimize photodamage of the embryo during the recording period for high-resolution images. Furthermore, acid-resistant fluorescent reporters are chosen to label autophagosomes, allowing the inner vesicles of an autophagosome to remain visible after entering the acidic phagosomal lumen. The methods described here, which enable high sensitivity, quantitative measurement of each step of the dynamic incorporation in developing embryos, are novel since the incorporation of autophagosomes to phagosomes has not been reported previously. In addition to studying the degradation of apoptotic cells, this protocol can be applied to study the degradation of non-apoptotic cell cargos inside phagosomes, as well as the fusion between other types of intracellular organelles in living C. elegans embryos. Furthermore, its principle of detecting the membrane fusion event can be adapted to study the relationship between autophagosomes and phagosomes or other intracellular organelles in any biological system in which real-time imaging can be conducted.

0 Q&A 901 Views Oct 20, 2022

When understanding the neuronal function of a specific neural circuit, single-cell level photoablation of a targeted cell is one of the useful experimental approaches. This protocol describes a method to photoablate specific motor neurons via the mini singlet oxygen generator (miniSOG2), a light–oxygen–voltage (LOV)-based optogenetic tool used for ablating targeted cells in arbitrary areas. MiniSOG2 could induce the cell death pathway by generating reactive oxygen species (ROS) upon blue light illumination. Photoablation of a specific cell using the miniSOG2 was performed to show that, in Ciona intestinalis type A (Ciona robusta), a single pair of motor neurons, MN2/A10.64, is necessary to drive their tail muscle contraction. The membrane targeted miniSOG2 combined with neuron-specific promoter (pSP-Neurog::miniSOG2-CAAX) was electroplated into the Ciona egg and transiently expressed at specific neurons of the embryo. MN2 labeled with pSP-Neurog:mCherry-CAAX was irradiated using a 440-nm laser from the lateral side for 10 min to ablate its neural function. The behavior of the embryo before and after the irradiation was recorded with a high-speed camera.


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0 Q&A 1008 Views Oct 20, 2022

Infertility has become a major public health problem, with a male factor involved in about half the cases. Mice are the most widely used animal model in reproductive biology research laboratories, but changes in sperm parameters in mice can be subtle and, in the absence of official guidelines, it is important that analyses are carried out in a strict and reproductive manner. This protocol successively details the different steps required to obtain spermatozoa under good conditions, the measurement of sperm motility using a Computer Assisted Sperm Analysis System (CASA) device, the calculation of sperm concentration in the epididymides using a sperm counting cell, and the examination of sperm morphology. The combination of these assays provides an overview of the basic sperm parameters in mice. This is both a diagnostic and a decision-making tool for researchers to orient their scientific strategy according to the observed abnormalities.

0 Q&A 1065 Views Sep 20, 2022

The activity of numerous autophagy-related proteins depends on their phosphorylation status, which places importance on understanding the responsible kinases and phosphatases. Great progress has been made in identifying kinases regulating autophagy, but much less is known about the phosphatases counteracting their function. Genetic screens and modern proteomic approaches provide powerful tools to identify candidate phosphatases, but further experiments are required to assign direct roles for candidates. We have devised a novel protocol to test the role of purified phosphatases in dephosphorylating specific targets in situ. This approach has the potential to visualize context-specific differences in target dephosphorylation that are not easily detected by lysate-based approaches such as Western blots.


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0 Q&A 1538 Views Sep 5, 2022

Skeletal muscle stem cells differentiated from human-induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) serve as a uniquely promising model system for investigating human myogenesis and disease pathogenesis, and for the development of gene editing and regenerative stem cell therapies. Here, we present an effective and reproducible transgene-free protocol for derivation of human skeletal muscle stem cells, iMyoblasts, from hiPSCs. Our two-step protocol consists of 1) small molecule-based differentiation of hiPSCs into myocytes, and 2) stimulation of differentiated myocytes with growth factor-rich medium to activate the proliferation of undifferentiated reserve cells, for expansion and cell line establishment. iMyoblasts are PAX3+/MyoD1+ myogenic stem cells with dual potential to undergo muscle differentiation and to self-renew as a regenerative cell population for muscle regeneration both ex vivo and in vivo. The simplicity and robustness of iMyoblast generation and expansion have enabled their application to model the molecular pathogenesis of Facioscapulohumeral Muscular Dystrophy and Limb-Girdle Muscular Dystrophies, to both ex vivo and in vivo muscle xenografts, and to respond efficiently to gene editing, enabling the co-development of gene correction and stem cell regenerative therapeutic technologies for the treatment of muscular dystrophies and muscle injury.


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