Gene Delivery to Postnatal Rat Brain by Non-ventricular Plasmid Injection and Electroporation
Summary
This protocol describes a non-viral method of delivery of genetic constructs to a certain area of living rodent brain. The method consists of plasmid preparation, micropipette fabrication, neonatal rat pup surgery, microinjection of the construct, and in vivo electroporation.
Abstract
Creation of transgenic animals is a standard approach in studying functions of a gene of interest in vivo. However, many knockout or transgenic animals are not viable in those cases where the modified gene is expressed or deleted in the whole organism. Moreover, a variety of compensatory mechanisms often make it difficult to interpret the results. The compensatory effects can be alleviated by either timing the gene expression or limiting the amount of transfected cells.
The method of postnatal non-ventricular microinjection and in vivo electroporation allows targeted delivery of genes, siRNA or dye molecules directly to a small region of interest in the newborn rodent brain. In contrast to conventional ventricular injection technique, this method allows transfection of non-migratory cell types. Animals transfected by means of the method described here can be used, for example, for two-photon in vivo imaging or in electrophysiological experiments on acute brain slices.
Protocol
Discussion
Methods of gene delivery into living rodent brain are well established for in utero electroporation7,8,11,12 and, more recently, for postnatal electroporation6. However, these methods are based on intraventricular injection of the plasmid DNA, which may be limiting for several applications. For example, these methods do not allow targeting cells in certain brain areas such as hippocampus, nor transfection of such non-migratory cell types as cortical astrocytes. Non-ventricular injection cou…
Acknowledgements
We thank Ekaterina Karelina for help with soundtrack recording for the video, Ivan Molotkov for 3D animation and Dr. Peter Blaesse for CAG-EGFP plasmid preparation.
The work was supported by grants from the Centre of International Mobility of Finland, Finnish Cultural Foundation and the Academy of Finland.
Materials
| Material Name | Tipo | Company | Catalogue Number | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2A-sa dumb Tweezers, 115mm | equipment | XYtronic | XY-2A-SA | Treat with 70% ethanol for disinfection before use in surgical manipulations |
| Biological Temperature Controller with stainless steel heating pad | equipment | Supertech | TMP-5b | |
| Borosilicate tube with filament | material | Sutter Instruments | BF120-69-10 | Glass needle |
| Disposable drills | material | Meisinger | HP 310 104 001 001 008 | |
| Dulbeco’s PBS 10X | reagent | Sigma | D1408 | |
| Dumont #5 forceps, 110 mm | equipment | FST | 91150-20 | Treat with 70% ethanol for disinfection before use in surgical manipulations |
| Ealing microelectrode puller | equipment | Ealing | 50-2013 | Vertical electrode glass puller |
| Ethilon monofil polyamide 6-0 FS-3 16 mm 3/8c | material | Johnson & Johnson Medical | EH7177H | Surgical threads |
| Exmire micro syringe 10.0 ml | equipment | Exmire | MS*GLLX00 | Gas-tight syringe |
| Fast Green | reagent | Sigma | F7252 | |
| Forceps electrodes | equipment | BEX | LF650P3 | Treat with 70% ethanol for disinfection prior to use |
| Foredom drill control | equipment | Foredom | FM3545 | Surgical drill power supply and control. Currently available analogue is micromotor kit K.1070 (Foredom) |
| Foredom micro motor handpiece | equipment | Foredom | MH-145 | Currently available analogue is micromotor kit K.1070 (Foredom) |
| Gas anesthesia platform for mice | equipment | Stoelting | 50264 | Assembled on stereotaxic instrument |
| Isoflurane | reagent | Baxter | FDG9623 | |
| Micro dressing forceps, 105 mm | equipment | Aesculap | BD302R | Treat with 70% ethanol for disinfection before use in surgical manipulations |
| Microfil | material | WPI | MF34G-5 | Micro syringe filling capillaries |
| Mineral oil | reagent | Sigma | M8410 | |
| NanoFil Syringe 10 microliter | equipment | WPI | NANOFIL | Hamilton syringe |
| plasmid CAG-EGFP | reagent | Extracted and purified with EndoFree Plasmid Maxi Kit (Qiagen) and dissolved in nuclease free water to concentration 1.5 mg/ml | ||
| Pulse generator CUY21Vivo-SQ | equipment | BEX | CUY21Vivo-SQ | |
| Schiller electrode gel | reagent | Schiller AG | 2.158000 | Conductive gel |
| Small animal stereotaxic instrument | equipment | David Kopf Instruments | 900 | |
| Stoelting mouse and neonatal rat adaptor | equipment | Stoelting | 51625 | Assembled on stereotaxic instrument. Treat earbars with 70% ethanol for disinfection before use in surgical manipulations |
| Student iris scissors, straight 11.5 cm | equipment | FST | 91460-11 | Treat with 70% ethanol for disinfection before use in surgical manipulations |
| Sugi absorbent swabs 17 x 8 mm | material | Kettenbach | 31602 | Surgical tampons |
| UMP3 microsyringe pump and Micro 4 microsyringe pump controller | equipment | WPI | UMP3-1 | Microinjector and controller |
| Univentor 400 Anesthesia Unit | equipment | Univentor | 8323001 |
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