NPC Neurosphere Assay: An In Vitro Assay to Assess the Migratory Response of Neural Precursor Cells from the Neurosphere

Abstract

Source: Williams, M. et al. Rapid Detection of Neurodevelopmental Phenotypes in Human Neural Precursor Cells (NPCs). J. Vis. Exp. (2018)

This video demonstrates the neural precursor cell neurosphere migration assay—an in vitro assay to study the migratory response of neural precursor cells from the neurosphere—via microscopic analysis.

Protocol

1. NPC Neurosphere Migration Assay

1. Neurosphere Formation
   1. Add 1 mL of 100% Expansion Media into a 35 mm dish with no coating substrate. Incubate dishes for at least 15 min at 37 °C before plating NPCs. Prepare 2–3 dishes to ensure that there will be enough neurospheres for the cell migration assay.
      NOTE: The absence of a coating substrate ensures that NPCs remain suspended in the media, which is essential for neurosphere formation. Coating dishes will prevent neurosphere formation.
   2. Lift, dissociate, and pellet cells. Resuspend cell pellet in 2–5 mL of pre-warmed 100% Expansion Media. Plate 1 million NPCs into each 35 mm dish prepared in section 1.1.1.
   3. Incubate NPCs at 37 °C for 48 to 96 h to allow NPCs to aggregate and form neurospheres. Assess sphere size using a live ruler on a phase-contrast microscope. Wait for most spheres to reach an approximate diameter of 100 µm (± 20 μm) (Figure 1). Smaller spheres will completely disperse and break apart during the migration assay.
2. Preparation of Plates for Neurosphere Migration Assay
   1. Dissolve ECM-mimic gel aliquots into 6 mL of 30% Expansion Media. Once ECM-mimic gel/30% Expansion Media solution is prepared, add vehicles, growth factors, or drugs of interest at desired concentrations.
      NOTE: Vehicle, drug, and growth factor concentrations need to be increased to account for the addition of 200 µL of neurospheres in section 1.3.
   2. Plate 1 mL of the ECM-mimic gel /30% Expansion Media solution (± vehicles, growth factors, or drugs) into one well of a 6-well plate. Make 2–3 wells per experimental condition. Alternatively, 35 mm dishes may be used. Incubate plates for at least 30 min at 37 °C.^.
      NOTE: DO NOT aspirate the ECM-mimic gel/30% Expansion Media solution for this assay. Plating spheres onto an aspirated ECM-Mimic gel will lead to rapid and excess migration.
3. Plating Neurospheres
   1. Collect neurospheres formed in section 1.1 and place them into a conical tube. Wash the 35 mm dishes with 1 mL of 1x PBS to ensure all neurospheres are collected. Spin down the collected neurospheres at 100 x g for 5 min.
   2. Resuspend the neurospheres in 1–3 mL of pre-warmed 30% Expansion Media. If 1 dish of neurospheres is collected, 1 mL of media is used to resuspend spheres. If 2 dishes are collected, 2 mL of media are added to resuspend spheres, etc. Pipette gently and use only a P-1000 to ensure spheres are not broken.
   3. Plate 200 μL of the resuspended neurospheres into the ECM-mimic gel/30% Expansion solution made in section 1.2. Rock plates in all directions to evenly distribute neurospheres. Incubate the plates for 48 h at 37°C.
   4. Remove ECM-mimic gel/30% Expansion Media solution and fix cells in 4% PFA, wash, and keep cells in 1x PBS + 0.05% Sodium Azide.
4. Analysis of Neurospheres
   1. Acquire images of entire neurospheres using phase-contrast settings at 10X. Ensure spheres are not touching each other. Measure average migration using the ImageJ software.
   2. Trace the outer contour of the neurosphere using the freehand line tool. The freehand line can be accessed by right-clicking on the "straight" line icon. Manually trace using a mouse.
   3. Use the measure function to calculate the area of the trace. Ensure that "area" is selected as a read-out in the "Set Measurements" window found under the Analyze tab. See Figure 2 for trace of outer contour in blue.
   4. Trace the inner cell mass of the sphere and measure area. See Figure 2 for trace of inner contour in red. Quantify average migration by subtracting the inner cell mass from the total neurosphere area.
   5. Measure neurospheres that exhibit a densely packed inner cell mass with cells migrating out as a contiguous carpet (Figure 2).
   6. Do not include cells outside of the carpet or detached from the neurosphere for measurement. See Figure 2 for examples of cells (circled in white) that are excluded from the outer carpet measurement. Analyze a minimum of 20 neurospheres for each condition.

Results

Figure 1: Selecting neurospheres for migration assay. (A) Phase-contrast image of a representative field of neurospheres at 24 h. Spheres are all less than 100 μm and thus, are not collected for the migration assay. (B) Phase-contrast image of a representative field of neurospheres at 72 h. All spheres are within the 100 μm ± 20 µm range, indicating they are ready to be collected for the migration assay.

Figure 2: Quantifying Migration. (A) Phase-contrast image of a representative neurosphere. (B) Blue outline displays the trace to measure total neurosphere area. Red shows the contour used to measure the area of the inner cell mass. Migration is defined as total neurosphere area-inner cell mass area. Note, the white circles show cells that are not in a contiguous carpet, as these cells are excluded from the migration contours.

Materials

List of materials used in this article

Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
Neurobasal Medium 	ThermoFischer Scientific	21103049	Component of both NIM and 100% Expansion Medium
PSC Neural Induction Medium: Protocol Link: https://goo.gl/ euub7a	 ThermoFischer Scientific  	A1647801	This is a kit that consists of Neurobasal (NB) medium and a 50x Neural Induction Supplement (NIS). The NIS is used to make 1X Neural Induction Medium and 100% Expansion Medium
Advanced DMEM/F12 Medium 	ThermoFischer Scientific  	12634-010	Component of 100% Expansion Medium
hESC-qualified Matrigel	Corning 	354277	hESC-qualified extracellular matrixmimic gel (ECM-mimic gel)
6-well plates 	Corning 	COR-3506 	Polystyrene plates used for NPC maintenance and for Neurosphere Migration Assay
Human Basic FGF-2 	Peprotech	100-18B 	Growth factor
Penicillin/Streptomycin 	ThermoFischer Scientific  	15140122	Antibiotic, component of NIM, 100% Expansion and 30% Expansion Media