A System for ex vivo Culturing of Embryonic Pancreas

Summary

Here, we describe a method for isolation, culture and manipulation of mouse embryonic pancreas. This represents an excellent ex vivo system for studying various aspects of pancreatic development, including morphogenesis, differentiation and growth. Pancreatic bud explants can be cultured for several days and used in a range of different applications, including whole-mount immunofluorescence and live imaging.

Abstract

The pancreas controls vital functions of our body, including the production of digestive enzymes and regulation of blood sugar levels¹. Although in the past decade many studies have contributed to a solid foundation for understanding pancreatic organogenesis, important gaps persist in our knowledge of early pancreas formation². A complete understanding of these early events will provide insight into the development of this organ, but also into incurable diseases that target the pancreas, such as diabetes or pancreatic cancer. Finally, this information will generate a blueprint for developing cell-replacement therapies in the context of diabetes.

During embryogenesis, the pancreas originates from distinct embryonic outgrowths of the dorsal and ventral foregut endoderm at embryonic day (E) 9.5 in the mouse embryo^3,4. Both outgrowths evaginate into the surrounding mesenchyme as solid epithelial buds, which undergo proliferation, branching and differentiation to generate a fully mature organ^2,5,6. Recent evidences have suggested that growth and differentiation of pancreatic cell lineages, including the insulin-producing β-cells, depends on proper tissue-architecture, epithelial remodeling and cell positioning within the branching pancreatic epithelium^7,8. However, how branching morphogenesis occurs and is coordinated with proliferation and differentiation in the pancreas is largely unknown. This is in part due to the fact that current knowledge about these developmental processes has relied almost exclusively on analysis of fixed specimens, while morphogenetic events are highly dynamic.

Here, we report a method for dissecting and culturing mouse embryonic pancreatic buds ex vivo on glass bottom dishes, which allow direct visualization of the developing pancreas (Figure 1). This culture system is ideally devised for confocal laser scanning microscopy and, in particular, live-cell imaging. Pancreatic explants can be prepared not only from wild-type mouse embryos, but also from genetically engineered mouse strains (e.g. transgenic or knockout), allowing real-time studies of mutant phenotypes. Moreover, this ex vivo culture system is valuable to study the effects of chemical compounds on pancreatic development, enabling to obtain quantitative data about proliferation and growth, elongation, branching, tubulogenesis and differentiation. In conclusion, the development of an ex vivo pancreatic explant culture method combined with high-resolution imaging provides a strong platform for observing morphogenetic and differentiation events as they occur within the developing mouse embryo.

Protocol

The protocol described here has been adapted from the technique originally described in Percival and Slack⁹ and optimized for confocal microscopy.

1. Coating of Glass Bottom Culture Dishes

The following steps should be carried out under sterile conditions in a laminar flow hood.

1. Pancreatic explants are cultured in 35-mm Petri dishes with 20-mm diameter glass microwell bottom (e.g. MatTek Corporation). Use one glass bottom dish per explant culture and for the whole duration of the culture. On the day before the dissection and isolation of the pancreatic buds, coat the glass bottom m....

Discussion

Once pancreatic fate is specified, pancreatic progenitor cells undergo extensive proliferation, differentiation and morphogenesis to eventually form a mature and functional organ^2,4. At present, how branching takes place in the pancreas and how it is connected to progenitor proliferation and differentiation is largely unknown. Pancreatic explant cultures represent an ideal system to elucidate these processes ex vivo^5,9,11. By combining live-cell imaging with ex vivo explants.......

Materials

List of materials used in this article

Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
Antibodies: Carboxypeptidase E-cadherin F-actin Glucagon Insulin β1-integrin Pdx1 Pdx1 Phospho-Histone H3	AbD Serotec Invitrogen Molecular Probes ImmunoStar Millipore Millipore Abcam Hybridoma bank Cell Signalling	1810-0006 13-1900 A-12373 20076 4011-01 MAB1997 ab47267 F109-D12 9706
Basal Medium Eagle (BME)	Sigma	B1522-500ML	Kept in sterile conditions
Cell culture grade water	PAA	S15-012	Kept in sterile conditions
Culture dishes (glass-bottomed), 35-mm	MatTek Corporation	P35G-0-20-C
Donkey Serum	Chemicon	S30-100 ml
Fetal calf serum Gold	PAA	A15-151	Kept in sterile conditions
Fibronectin	Invitrogen	330100-8	Stock sol. 1 mg/ml in cell culture grade water
Gentamicin	Invitrogen	15750-037	Kept in sterile conditions
Glutamine	Invitrogen	25030-024	Kept in sterile conditions
4-well Multidishes	Nunc	176740
Microscopes: Inverted Confocal Microscope (LSM 700) Stereomicroscope (Discovery V12)	Zeiss Zeiss		Objectives: C-Apochromat 10X / 0.45 W M27 (work. dist. 1.8 mm; imaging depth ~100 mm); C-Apochromat 40X / 1.2 W Corr M27 (work. dist. 0.28 mm; ~imaging depth 50 μm) Transillumination from below and fiber-optic illumination from above
Paraformaldehyde	Roth	0335.3	Stock solution 20%
Pasteur Pipet (Glass), 150 mm	VWR	HECH567/1
Penicillin/Streptomycin	PAA	P11-010	Kept in sterile conditions
Petri dishes, 60 mm	Greiner Bio-One	628102
Petri dishes, 35 mm	Greiner Bio-One	627161
1X PBS, pH7.4	PAA	H15-002	Kept in sterile conditions
Spring Scissors 8 mm blade curved	Fine Science Tools	15023-10
Triton-X100	Roth	3051.3
Watchmaker's foreceps Dumont #5	Roth	K342.1