Stable and Efficient Genetic Modification of Cells in the Adult Mouse V-SVZ for the Analysis of Neural Stem Cell Autonomous and Non-autonomous Effects

Summary

Here we describe a procedure based on the use of lentiviral particles for the long-term genetic modification of neural stem cells and/or their adjacent ependymal cells in the adult ventricular-subventricular neurogenic niche which allows the separate analysis of cell autonomous and non-autonomous, niche-dependent effects on neural stem cells.

Abstract

Relatively quiescent somatic stem cells support life-long cell renewal in most adult tissues. Neural stem cells in the adult mammalian brain are restricted to two specific neurogenic niches: the subgranular zone of the dentate gyrus in the hippocampus and the ventricular-subventricular zone (V-SVZ; also called subependymal zone or SEZ) in the walls of the lateral ventricles. The development of in vivo gene transfer strategies for adult stem cell populations (i.e. those of the mammalian brain) resulting in long-term expression of desired transgenes in the stem cells and their derived progeny is a crucial tool in current biomedical and biotechnological research. Here, a direct in vivo method is presented for the stable genetic modification of adult mouse V-SVZ cells that takes advantage of the cell cycle-independent infection by LVs and the highly specialized cytoarchitecture of the V-SVZ niche. Specifically, the current protocol involves the injection of empty LVs (control) or LVs encoding specific transgene expression cassettes into either the V-SVZ itself, for the in vivo targeting of all types of cells in the niche, or into the lateral ventricle lumen, for the targeting of ependymal cells only. Expression cassettes are then integrated into the genome of the transduced cells and fluorescent proteins, also encoded by the LVs, allow the detection of the transduced cells for the analysis of cell autonomous and non-autonomous, niche-dependent effects in the labeled cells and their progeny.

Introduction

The murine ventricular-subventricular zone (V-SVZ), in the walls of the lateral ventricle facing the striatum, is a very active germinal region in which a continual process of progenitor cell replication and differentiation results in the persistent production of olfactory bulb (OB) interneurons and corpus callosum oligodendrocytes¹. The lifelong generation of these cells appears to be supported by the presence in this region of neural stem cells (NSCs; also called B1 cells), which express the astrocytic antigen glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) and stem cell markers such as nestin, Id1 and Sox2². GFAP-expressing B1 cells generate transit am....

Protocol

ETHICS STATEMENT: This protocol follows the animal care guidelines of the University of Valencia in compliance with European directive 2010/63/EU.

1. Generation of LV for In Vivo Marking Studies (see Figure 1a)

CAUTION: The procedure described herein is biosafety level 2, therefore perform all the following procedures in a biohazard hood. Ensure that research personnel are appropriately qualified and trained in all procedures. Wear personal protective equipment, including gown, double gloves and suitable eye protection. Finally, thoroughly decontaminate all tools and surfaces that could have been in contact with viruses accord....

Results

LV-mediated gene delivery system can be used for the long-term in vivo transduction of cells in the adult mouse V-SVZ, allowing their tracking and genetic modification during proliferation, migration and differentiation. The infection and the expression are highly effective and yield numerous cells that can be easily distinguished among other non-infected cells by the expression of the reporter included. We have thus far visualized transduced cells with GFP fluorescent reporters, driven by the ubiquitously expre.......

Discussion

LVs offer important advantages over other viral systems for the genetic modification of adult NSCs^16,18. Stereotaxic delivery of lentiviruses to the V-SVZ niche represents an efficient method to label and trace infrequently dividing B1-NSCs overcoming the limitations of other commonly used methods such as BrdU, which is diluted after multiple cell divisions, or retrovirus, which only target cells that are proliferating at the moment of application. LVs, together with adenoviruses, can infect cells independentl.......

Materials

List of materials used in this article

Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
Part 1: Generation of LV for in vivo delivery.
Equipment:
Ultracentrifuge	Beckman Coulter	Optima XL-100K
Ultracentrifuge rotor	Beckman Coulter	SW-28
Ultracentrifuge rotor	Beckman Coulter	SW-55
Ultracentrifuge tubes	Beckman Coulter	358126	25 mm x 89 mm
Ultracentrifuge tubes	Beckman Coulter	326819	13 mm x 51 mm
Ultracentrifuge adapters	Beckman Coulter	358156
6-well plate	SPL	PLC-30006
24-well plate	SPL	PLC-30024
10 cm dish	SPL	PLC-20101	100 x 20 style
FACS tubes	Afora	DE400800	12 mm x 75 mm, 5 ml
Cup sterile FACS filter	BD	340626	30 µm
Nitrocellulose filter	Millipore	SCGPU05RE	0.22 μm
Flow cytometer	BD	LSR Fortessa	Blue laser 488 nm
Steritop filter	Biofil	FPE-204-500	0.22 µm
Reagents:
pMDLg/pRRE plasmid	Addgene	#12251	Core packaging plasmid
pRSV.REV plasmid	Addgene	#12253	Core packaging plasmid
pMD2G plasmid	Addgene	#12259	Envelope plasmid
pRRL-SIN-PPT.PGK.EGFP.Wpre plasmid	Addgene	#12252	Transfer vector plasmid
Dulbecco's Modified Eagle's Medium	Biowest	L0101-500	For HeLa cell culture
Iscove's Modified Dulbecco's Medium	Life technologies	12440-053	For 293T cell culture
Tris-EDTA (TE)			Tris-HCl (sigma, T5941), 0.1 mM EDTA (sigma, E5134), pH 7.6,  DNAse/RNAse-free, 0.2 µm sterile-filtered
2x HBS			0.28 M NaCl (Sigma, S7653), 0.05 M HEPES (Sigma, H7523), 1.5 mM anhydrous Na2HPO4 (Sigma, S7907) in dH2O (preferably not MilliQ). Adjust pH to 7.0 with NaOH solution (Calbiochem, 567530).
Fetal bovine serum (FBS)	Biowest	S181B-500	Stock solution at 100x, used to prepare HeLa and 293T culture medium at a final concentration of 10x.
Glutamine	Sigma-Aldrich	G7513-100	Stock solution at 200 mM, used to prepare HeLa and 293T culture medium at a final concentration of 6 mM.
Sodium pyruvate	Life technologies	11360-039	Stock solution at 100 mM, used to prepare HeLa and 293T culture medium at a final concentration of 1 mM.
GlutaMAX Supplement	Life technologies	35050-061	Used to prepare 293T culture medium at a final concentration of 1%.
Penicillin/streptomycin	Sigma-Aldrich	P4458	Stock solution contains 5,000 units/ml penicillin and 5 mg/ml streptomycin. Used to prepare HeLa and 293T culture medium at a final concentration of 1%.
Trypsin-EDTA	Life Technologies	25200-056	With phenol red, contains 2.5 g porcine trypsin and 0.2 g EDTA 4Na/L HBSS.
Phosphate buffered saline  (PBS)	Sigma-Aldrich	D1408	Without calcium chloride and magnesium chloride, 10x, liquid, sterile-filtered, suitable for cell culture. Stock solution used to prepare 1x PBS in cell culture grade water.
Polybrene (hexadimethrine bromide)	Sigma-Aldrich	H9268	Powder. Prepare a 1,000x stock solution at 8 mg/ml in dHO
Paraformaldehyde EM grade 16%	EM Sciences	15710
Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
Part 2: Sterotaxic injection of LV into the SEZ proper or the lateral ventricle.
Equipment:
Vernier stereotaxic instrument	NeuroLab, Leica	39463001	http://www.leicabiosystems.com/
Cunningham mouse and neonatal rat adaptor	NeuroLab, Leica	39462950
Syringe holder	KD Scientific	KDS-311-CE
33 gauge syringe	Hamilton	P/N    84851/00	#85RN
Electric drill	Fine Science Tool	98096
Thermal blanket	Ufesa	AL5512/01	230-240 V, 100-110 W, type C_AL01
Shaver	Jata	MP373N	Model: beauty, 3 V, 300 mA, type HT-03.
Reagents:
Medetomidine	Esteve	DOMTOR	Comercial solution at 1 mg/ml.
Ketamine	Merial	Imalgene 500	Comercial solution at 50 mg/ml
Medetomidina/ketamine mixture			Prepare a working mixture of medetomidine at a final concentration of 0.2 mg/ml dilution and ketamine at a final concentration of 15 mg/ml in saline solution. Use as anesthesia injecting a volume to get a final concentration of 0.5-1 mg medetomidina per kg body weight and 50-75 mg ketamine per kg body weight
Butorphanol	Pfizer	Torbugesic	Stock solution at 10 mg/ml. Used as analgesia at 1 mg/ml in saline solution.
Atipamezole	Esteve	Antisedan	Stock solution at 5 mg/ml, used in a final concentration of 0.5 mg/ml in saline solution to exit from anesthesia.
0.9% saline solution	Braun	13465412
Histoacryl	Braun	1050052	Topical skin adhesive
HydroGel	Clear H2O	70-01-5022
Kimwipes	Kimberly-Clark	34120	11 cm x 21 cm
Bleach/Virkon	Dupont
Surgical marker pen	Staedler	313-9	Permanent lumocolor
Ophthalmic lubricant		SICCAFLUID	0.5 g/dosis, carbomer 974P
Povidone-iodine	Betadine	694109.6	10% povidone-iodine
Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
Part 3: Histological analysis.
Equipment:
Automatic peristaltic pump	Cole-Parmer Inst. Co.	HV-07524-55	Masterflex L/S variable-speed economy drive, 1.6-100 rpm, 230 V
Pump head	Cole-Parmer Inst. Co.	HV-07518-00	Masterflex L/S Easy-Load pump head for precision tubing; PSF housing, CRS rotor
Silicone tube	Cole-Parmer Inst. Co.	HV-96410-16	Platinum L/S 16
Scalp vein set	Vygon V-green	70246.05T	25 G, 30 cm tube length
Vibratome	Leica	VT1000
Confocal microscope	Olympus	FluoView FV10i
Hot plate	Tehtnica	SHP-10
Reagents:
Phosphate buffer (PB)			0.2 M PB: 0.2 M Na2HPO4 (Sigma, S7907) and 0.2 M NaH2PO4 (Panreac, 141965.1211) in dH2O, adjust pH to 7.2-7.4
Paraformaldehyde (PFA)	Panreac	141451.1211	Prepare fresh every time. Heat dH2O up to 55–60 °C using a hot plate placed in a fume hood and pour PFA powder while stirring to obtain an 8% solution. The solution is cloudy white as PFA does not dissolve easily. Add 1N NaOH drop by drop just until the solution clears. Cool down, filter through Whatman paper and add an equivalent volume of 0.2 M PB.
Saline solution			0.9% NaCl in dH2O
Superglue	LOCTITE	767547
Sodium azide	Panreac	122712.1608
Glycine	Sigma-Aldrich	G7126-100
Normal goat serum	Millipore	S30-100
Triton X-100	Sigma-Aldrich	T9284	Detergent
Anti-GFP rabbit antibody	ROCKLAND	600-401-215	Use at a 1:500 dilution
Alexa Fluor 488 Donkey Anti-Rabbit IgG (H+L) Antibody	Molecular probes	A-21206	Use at a 1:750 dilution
6-Diamindino-2-phenylindole dihydrochloride hydrate (DAPI)	Sigma-Aldrich	D9542	Fluorescent nuclear staining. Use at 2 mg/ml in ddH2O. Keep in the dark at 4 °C.
Fluoromount-G	EM Sciences	17984-25	Mounting medium for fluorescent preparations