Single-Cell Sorting of Immunophenotyped Mesenchymal Stem Cells from Human Exfoliated Deciduous Teeth

Summary

This protocol describes the use of fluorescence-activated cell sorting of human mesenchymal stem cells using the single-cell sorting method. Specifically, the use of single-cell sorting can achieve 99% purity of the immunophenotyped cells from a heterogeneous population when combined with a multiparametric flow cytometry-based approach.

Abstract

The mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) of an organism possess an extraordinary capacity to differentiate into multiple lineages of adult cells in the body and are known for their immunomodulatory and anti-inflammatory properties. The use of these stem cells is a boon to the field of regenerative biology, but at the same time, a bane to regenerative medicine and therapeutics owing to the multiple cellular ambiguities associated with them. These ambiguities may arise from the diversity in the source of these stem cells and from their in vitro growth conditions, both of which reflect upon their functional heterogeneity.

This warrants methodologies to provide purified, homogeneous populations of MSCs for therapeutic applications. Advances in the field of flow cytometry have enabled the detection of single-cell populations using a multiparametric approach. This protocol outlines a way to identify and purify stem cells from human exfoliated deciduous teeth (SHEDs) through fluorescence-assisted single-cell sorting. Simultaneous expression of surface markers, namely, CD90-fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC), CD73-peridinin-chlorophyll-protein (PerCP-Cy5.5), CD105-allophycocyanin (APC), and CD44-V450, identified the "bright," positive-expressors of MSCs using multiparametric flow cytometry. However, a significant drop was observed in percentages of quadruple expressors of these positive markers from passage 7 onwards to the later passages.

The immunophenotyped subpopulations were sorted using the single-cell sort mode where only two positive and one negative marker constituted the inclusion criteria. This methodology ensured the cell viability of the sorted populations and maintained cell proliferation post sorting. The downstream application for such sorting can be used to evaluate lineage-specific differentiation for the gated subpopulations. This approach can be applied to other single-cell systems to improve isolation conditions and for acquiring multiple cell surface marker information.

Introduction

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) can be regarded as a scalable source of cells suitable for cell-based therapies and may be considered a gold standard system in regenerative medicine. These cells can be isolated from a variety of sources in the body with different tissue origins¹. Depending on their source tissue, each type of MSC displays an ambiguous in vitro behavior². This is well observed in their morphological and functional properties³. Multiple studies have shown intra-clonal variation in dimensions, including adult tissue differentiation, genomic state, and metabolic and cellular architecture of MSCs^2,4.

Immunophenotyping of cells has been a common application of flow cytometry for the identification of stem cells and this was utilized by the International Society for Cell and Gene Therapy (ISCT) in 2006 to prescribe a list of minimal criteria to identify cells as MSCs. It stated that along with plastic adherence and the ability to differentiate into three lineages (osteogenic, chondrogenic, and adipogenic) in vitro, ≥95% of the cell population must express CD105, CD73, CD90, and these cells must lack the expression (≤2% positive) of CD34, CD45, CD11b, CD14, and HLA-DR, as measured by flow cytometry⁵. Although the MSCs were defined by a set of biomarkers under the minimal criteria of the ISCT, their immune properties could not be benchmarked with these biomarkers and there was a need for more beyond these criteria to make cross-study comparisons and clonal variations easier to quantify².

Despite the guidelines set by ISCT, extensive research on MSCs has shown that heterogeneity exists in this population, which could arise due to a multitude of factors, mainly due to the ubiquitous nature of heterogeneity that arises between MSC donors⁶, tissue sources⁷, individual cells within a clonal population⁸, and culture conditions^2,9,10. Characterization and purification of these primary cells from a variety of tissue sources to ensure quality and cell fate are key steps in their production. The need to understand the displayed variations amongst the population requires an efficient method to resolve it into subpopulations that can be divided and collected separately¹¹. Single-cell level analyses help overcome the challenges of cell-cell variation, reduce biological noise arising from a heterogeneous population, and offer the ability to investigate and characterize rare cells¹².

Based on the purpose and chosen parameters, several methods can be employed to sort and enrich the selected populations. Cell-sorting techniques can comprise both bulk sorting and single-cell sorting methods. While bulk sorting can enrich target populations through Magnetic-activated cell sorting (MACS)¹³, fractionation¹⁴, and elutriation¹⁵, single-cell sorting can enrich more homogeneous populations by means of fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS)¹¹. A comparative analyses of each of these methods with its own set of advantages and disadvantages is highlighted in Table 1.

Table 1: Comparative analyses of different techniques: MACS, Fractionation, Elutriation, and FACS highlighting the differences in their principle and the advantages and disadvantages of choosing a particular technique over another. Abbreviations: MACS = Magnetic-activated cell sorting; FACS = Fluorescence-activated cell sorting. Please click here to download this Table.

Since the advent of the technique, single-cell flow cytometry has played a major role in enumeration¹⁶, detection, and characterization of a specific cell population in a heterogeneous sample¹⁷. Hewitt et al. in 2006 laid the foundation of automated cell sorting methodology to enhance the isolation of homogenous pools of differentiated human embryonic stem cells (hESCs)¹⁸. Single-cell sorting enriched the population of GFP-transduced hESCs facilitating the isolation of genetically modified clones, which opened a new dimension in clinical research. To improve the sort efficiency, two approaches have generally been taken; either the collection media of the sorted populations are modified to sustain viability and proliferation of post-sorted cells¹⁹ or the cell-sorting algorithm/software is appropriately modified¹².

With the advancement of technology, commercial flow cytometers and cell sorters have been able to help address challenges that were met while aseptically sorting fragile and rare cell populations, especially stem cells of different origins. One of the major challenges of stem cell biologists has been the clonal isolation of human pluripotent stem cells following transfection protocols required in gene editing studies¹⁹. This was addressed by sorting single cells into 96-well plates that were coated with Mouse Embryonic Fibroblasts (MEFs) along with supplements and commercial small molecule ROCK inhibitors. However, cell isolation strategies could be largely refined with the use of index sorting, a feature of the sorting algorithm that identifies the immunophenotype of individual cells sorted¹². This refined modality in single-cell sorting helped not only in enhancing sort efficiency for stem cells, especially with regard to rare hematopoietic stem cell populations, but also efficiently linked single-cell clones to their downstream functional assays²⁰.

This paper focuses on single-cell sorting of immunophenotyped stem cells from human exfoliated deciduous teeth (SHEDs) for the enrichment of sub-populations to study their functional differentiation capacities. Using a combination of two MSC-positive markers, CD90 and CD73, and a negative hematopoietic marker CD45, the MSCs were immunophenotyped and the dim and null expressors were identified. Based on their immunophenotype the subpopulations were identified as pure MSCs, single positive and double negative populations. They were sorted using the single-cell sort mode to obtain pure and enriched subpopulations for further functional studies to identify whether the differential expression of markers was an artifact of in vitro culture conditions or whether it has any effect on the functional properties as well. Cells that were not homogeneous expressors of the "positive MSC markers" were sorted to study their functional properties.

Protocol

Ethics approval and consent to participate: Human exfoliated deciduous dental pulp samples were received after obtaining informed consent and full ethical approval by Sri Rajiv Gandhi Dental College and Hospital (SRGCDS) Oral and Maxillofacial Department, Bengaluru, in accordance with the standards established by the Hospital Ethical Clearance Committee, SRGCDS. Following which isolation, culture, maintenance, and application of SHEDs were approved by and in compliance with the guidelines recommended by the Institut…

Representative Results

The SHEDs were characterized with standard immunofluorescence assays showing the expression of vimentin (red, type III intermediate filaments), actin filaments (Alexa fluor 488 Phalloidin Probes), and nuclei stained with DAPI (Figure 1A). To estimate their proliferative and colony-forming capacities, standard short-term cell growth assays were performed. A 14.3-fold increase in proliferation rate from day 2 to day 8 has been shown in Figure 1B. The clonogenic pr…

Discussion

In the field of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, among the postnatal sources, oral tissue-derived MSCs have attracted profound interest because of their minimal ethical obligations and notable multilineage differentiation potential²¹. Dental pulp stem cells (DPSCs) from the impacted third molar and SHEDs have garnered the most attention among dental MSCs for their therapeutic potential in neurodegenerative and traumatic diseases²². The protocol described in thi…

Materials

Alcian Blue Stain	HiMedia	CCK029-1KT
Antibiotic-Antimycotic (100x)	Gibco by ThermoFisher	15240062
BD CompBead Plus Anti-Mouse Ig, κ/Negative Control (BSA) Compensation Plus (7.5 µm) Particles Set	BD Biosciences	560497
BD FACS Accudrop Beads	BD Biosciences	345249	Used to set up the Laser delay when the sort module opens.
BD FACS Aria Fusion Flow cytometer	BD Biosciences	—
BD FACS Diva 9.4	BD Biosciences	—
BD FACS Sheath Fluid	BD Biosciences	342003	Used as sheath fluid for both analysis and sorting experiments in the BD FACSAria Fusion
BD FACSDiva CS&T Research Beads	BD Biosciences	655050	Used for Instrument configuration depending on the nozzle size.
BD Horizon V450 Mouse Anti-Human CD44	BD Biosciences	561292
BD Horizon V450 Mouse IgG2b, κ Isotype Control	BD Biosciences	560374	CD44-V450 isotype
BD Pharmingen APC Mouse Anti-Human CD105	BD Biosciences	562408
BD Pharmingen APC Mouse IgG1, κ Isotype Control	BD Biosciences	555751	CD105-APC isotype
BD Pharmingen DAPI Solution	BD Biosciences	564907	DAPI Stock solution of 1 mg/mL
BD Pharmingen FITC Mouse Anti-Human CD90	BD Biosciences	555595
BD Pharmingen FITC Mouse IgG1, κ Isotype Control	BD Biosciences	555748	CD90-FITC isotype
BD Pharmingen PE Mouse Anti-Human CD45	BD Biosciences	555483
BD Pharmingen PE Mouse IgG1, κ Isotype Control	BD Biosciences	555749	CD45-PE isotype
BD Pharmingen PerCP-Cy 5.5 Mouse Anti-Human CD73	BD Biosciences	561260
BD Pharmingen PerCP-Cy 5.5 Mouse IgG1, κ Isotype Control	BD Biosciences	550795	CD73-PerCP-Cy 5.5 isotype
BD Pharmingen Purified Mouse Anti-Vimentin	BD Biosciences	550513
Bovine serum albumin	Hi-Media	TC548-5G
Crystal violet	Nice chemical pvt ltd	C33809
Dulbecco's Phosphate Buffered Saline	Sigma-aldrich	D5652-50L	dPBS used for culture work and maintenance.
Ethanol	—	—	Used for general sterlization.
Fetal Bovine Serum	Gibco by ThermoFisher	10270-106
Goat anti-Mouse IgG (H+L) Cross-Adsorbed Secondary Antibody, Alexa Fluor 555	ThermoFisher Scientific	A-21422
KO-DMEM	Gibco by ThermoFisher	10829018	Basal medium for undifferentiated hESCs, used in the preparation of culture media
L-Glutamine 200mM (100x)	Gibco by ThermoFisher	25030-081
Methanol, for Molecular Biology	Hi-Media	MB113
Oil red O	HiMedia	CCK013-1KT
Paraformaldehyde	loba chemie	30525-89-4
Penicillin Streptomycin (100x)	Gibco by ThermoFisher	15140- 122
Phalloidin (ActinGreen 488 ReadyProbes reagent)	Invitrogen	R37110
Silver Nitrate	HiMedia	MB156-25G
Sodium Thiosulphate pentahydrate	Chemport	10102-17-7
Sphero Rainbow Fluorescent Particles, 3.0 – 3.4 µm	BD Biosciences	556291
Staining buffer	Prepared in MIRM	—-	It was prepared using 2% FBS in PBS
StemPro Adipogenesis Differentiation Basal Media	Gibco by ThermoFisher	A10410-01	Basal media for Adipogenic media
StemPro Adipogenesis Supplement	Gibco by ThermoFisher	A10065-01	Induction media for Adipogenic media
StemPro Chondrogenesis Supplement	Gibco by ThermoFisher	A10064-01	Induction media for Chondrogenic media
StemPro Osteogenesis Supplement	Gibco by ThermoFisher	A10066-01	Induction media for Osteoogenic media
StemPro Osteogenesis/Chondrogenesis Differentiation Basal Media	Gibco by ThermoFisher	A10069-01	Basal media for both Ostegenic and Chondrogenic media
Triton-X-100	Hi-Media	MB031
Trypan Blue	Gibco by life technologies	15250-061
Trypsin – EDTA Solution 1x	Hi-media	TCL049
Tween-20	MERCK	9005-64-5