Umea University View Institution's Website 6 articles published in JoVE Immunology and Infection Cultivation Methods of Spirochetes from Borrelia burgdorferi Sensu Lato Complex and Relapsing Fever Borrelia Anne Berthold*1, Marie-Line Faucillion*2, Ingela Nilsson2, Maryna Golovchenko3, Vett Lloyd1, Sven Bergström2, Natalie Rudenko3 1Department of Biology, Mt. Allison University, 2Department of Molecular Biology, Umeå University, 3Biology Centre Czech Academy of Sciences, Institute of Parasitology In vitro culture is a direct detection method for the presence of living bacteria. This protocol describes methods for the culture of diverse Borrelia spirochetes, including those of the Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato complex, relapsing fever Borrelia species, and Borrelia miyamotoi. These species are fastidious and slow growing but can be cultured. Cancer Research CAM-Delam Assay to Score Metastatic Properties by Quantifying Delamination and Invasion Capacity of Cancer Cells Tami Green1, Lina Šlekienė1,2, Lena Gunhaga1 1Umeå Centre for Molecular Medicine, Umeå University, 2Department of Histology and Embryology, Medical Academy, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences The CAM-Delam assay to evaluate the metastatic capacity of cancer cells is relatively fast, easy, and cheap. The method can be used for unraveling the molecular mechanisms regulating metastasis formation and for drug screening. An optimized assay for analyzing human tumor samples could be a clinical method for personalized cancer treatment. Immunology and Infection Assays for Studying the Role of Vitronectin in Bacterial Adhesion and Serum Resistance Birendra Singh1,2, Maryam Mostajeran1, Yu-Ching Su1, Tamim Al-Jubair1, Kristian Riesbeck1 1Clinical Microbiology, Department of Translational Medicine, Lund University, 2Department of Molecular Biology, Umea University This report describes protocols for characterizing interactions between bacterial outer membrane proteins and the human complement regulator vitronectin. The protocols can be used to study the binding reactions and biological function of vitronectin in any bacterial species. Immunology and Infection Human Lung Dendritic Cells: Spatial Distribution and Phenotypic Identification in Endobronchial Biopsies Using Immunohistochemistry and Flow Cytometry Faezzah Baharom1, Gregory Rankin2, Saskia Scholz1, Jamshid Pourazar2, Clas Ahlm3, Anders Blomberg2, Anna Smed-Sörensen1 1Immunology and Allergy Unit, Department of Medicine Solna, Karolinska Institutet, 2Division of Medicine, Department of Public Health and Clinical Medicine, Umeå University, 3Divison of Infectious Diseases, Department of Clinical Microbiology, Umeå University Lung-resident immune cells, including dendritic cells (DCs) in humans, are critical for defense against inhaled pathogens and allergens. However, due to the scarcity of human lung tissue, studies are limited. This work presents protocols to process human mucosal endobronchial biopsies for studying lung DCs using immunohistochemistry and flow cytometry. Chemistry Isolation and Preparation of Bacterial Cell Walls for Compositional Analysis by Ultra Performance Liquid Chromatography Samantha M. Desmarais1, Felipe Cava2, Miguel A. de Pedro3, Kerwyn Casey Huang1,4 1Department of Bioengineering, Stanford University, 2Department of Molecular Biology and Laboratory for Molecular Infection Medicine Sweden, Umeå Centre for Microbial Research, Umeå University, 3Campus de Cantoblanco, Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, 4Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Stanford University School of Medicine The bacterial cell wall is composed of peptidoglycan, a macromolecular network of sugar strands crosslinked by peptides. Ultra Performance Liquid Chromatography provides high resolution and throughput for novel discoveries of peptidoglycan composition. We present a procedure for the isolation of cell walls (sacculi) and their subsequent preparation for analysis via UPLC. Medicine Near Infrared Optical Projection Tomography for Assessments of β-cell Mass Distribution in Diabetes Research Anna U. Eriksson*1, Christoffer Svensson*1, Andreas Hörnblad1, Abbas Cheddad1, Elena Kostromina1, Maria Eriksson1, Nils Norlin1, Antonello Pileggi2, James Sharpe3, Fredrik Georgsson4, Tomas Alanentalo1, Ulf Ahlgren1 1Umeå Centre for Molecular Medicine, Umeå University, 2Cell Transplant Center, Diabetes Research Institute, University of Miami,, 3EMBL-CRG Systems Biology Program, Centre for Genomic Regulation, Catalan Institute of Research and Advanced Studies, 4Dept. of Computing Science, Umeå University We describe the adaptation of optical projection tomography (OPT)1 to imaging in the near infrared spectrum, and the implementation of a number of computational tools. These protocols enable assessments of pancreatic β-cell mass (BCM) in larger specimens, increase the multichannel capacity of the technique and increase the quality of OPT data.