Efficient Chromatin Immunoprecipitation using Limiting Amounts of Biomass

Summary

We describe a robust method for chromatin immunoprecipitation using primary T cells. The method is founded on standard approaches, but uses a specific set of conditions and reagents that improve efficiency for limited a quantities of cells. Importantly, a detailed description of the data analysis phase is presented.

Abstract

Chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) is a widely-used method for determining the interactions of different proteins with DNA in chromatin of living cells. Examples include sequence-specific DNA binding transcription factors, histones and their different modification states, enzymes such as RNA polymerases and ancillary factors, and DNA repair components. Despite its ubiquity, there is a lack of up-to-date, detailed methodologies for both bench preparation of material and for accurate analysis allowing quantitative metrics of interaction. Due to this lack of information, and also because, like any immunoprecipitation, conditions must be re-optimized for new sets of experimental conditions, the ChIP assay is susceptible to inaccurate or poorly quantitative results.

Our protocol is ultimately derived from seminal work on transcription factor:DNA interactions^1,2 , but incorporates a number of improvements to sensitivity and reproducibility for difficult-to-obtain cell types. The protocol has been used successfully^3,4 , both using qPCR to quantify DNA enrichment, or using a semi-quantitative variant of the below protocol.

This quantitative analysis of PCR-amplified material is performed computationally, and represents a limiting factor in the assay. Important controls and other considerations include the use of an isotype-matched antibody, as well as evaluation of a control region of genomic DNA, such as an intergenic region predicted not to be bound by the protein under study (or anticipated not to show changes under the experimental conditions). In addition, a standard curve of input material for every ChIP sample is used to derive absolute levels of enrichment in the experimental material. Use of standard curves helps to take into account differences between primer sets, regardless of how carefully they are designed, and also efficiency differences throughout the range of template concentrations for a single primer set. Our protocol is different from others that are available^5-8 in that we extensively cover the later, analysis phase.

Protocol

1. Isolation of Mouse Splenic Naïve CD4 T Cells

1. Sacrifice the mouse in a humane manner consistent with Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) protocols. Dissect the spleen and place it in Petri dish containing 10 ml of DMEM with 10% FBS.
2. Crush the spleen using frosted ends of two glass slides to release the splenocytes. Transfer the cell suspension in a 15 ml conical tube.
3. Collect the cells by centrifugation at 200 x g (~1,200 rpm for a clinical centrifuge with a typical rotor diameter) for 5 min at 4 °C.
4. Resuspend cells in 2 ml ACK buffer to lyse red blood cells, 1 min at room temperature ....

Results

The Chromatin Immunoprecipitation (ChIP) protocol presented here controls for differences, if any, in the amount of DNA used in PCR through use of a primer pair that amplifies an unbound region of genome, thus serving as a "loading control". In the example shown in Figure 3, we have used the coding region of the mouse Actb gene as a region unbound to our protein of interest and the transcription factor NFAT binding site on mouse Il2 promoter as target region. Alternatively, a regio.......

Discussion

The protocol above provides a robust method of accurately quantifying DNA enrichment from primary lymphocytes using ChIP. One major reason for robustness in this protocol is the inclusion of biological replicates. The above protocol uses three replicates, the enrichment for which is calculated independently. The outputs are then averaged to provide a degree of enrichment and standard deviations calculated to provide a measure of variability. For each sample, three technical replicates are also performed to elimina.......

Materials

List of materials used in this article

Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
Formaldehyde	Sigma	F-8775	Store at RT
Phosphate Buffered Saline	Hyclone	SH30256.01	Store at 4 °C
Protease Inhibitor tablets	Roche	04693116001	Store at 4 °C
Protein G magnetic beads	Active Motif	101945	Store at 4 °C
RNase A (20 mg/ml)	EMD Millipore	556746	Store at -20 °C
Proteinase K (20 mg/ml)	Roche	03115879001	Dissolve in 50 mM Tris-HCl, 10 mM CaCl2, pH 8.0
Platinum Taq DNA Polymerase	Invitrogen	10966-034	Store at -20 °C
SYBR Green I	Invitrogen	S7567	Store at -20 °C
1 M Glycine			Store at RT
Cell lysis buffer (5 mM Pipes, pH 8.0; 85 mM KCl; 0.5% NP-40)			Store at 4 °C
Nuclear lysis buffer (50 mM Tris, pH 8.1; 10 mM EDTA; 1% SDS)			Store at RT
ChIP dilution buffer (0.01% SDS; 1.1% Triton X-100; 1.2 mM EDTA; 16.7 mM Tris pH 8.1; 190 mM NaCl)			Store at 4 °C
Low salt wash buffer (0.1% SDS; 1% Triton X-100; 2 mM EDTA; 20 mM Tris pH 8.1; 150 mM NaCl)			Store at 4 °C
High salt wash buffer (0.1% SDS; 1% Triton X-100; 2 mM EDTA; 20 mM Tris pH 8.1; 600 mM NaCl)			Store at 4 °C
LiCl wash buffer (0.25 M LiCl; 1% NP-40; 1% Sodium Deoxycholate, 1 mM EDTA; 10 mM Tris pH 8.0)			Store at 4 °C
TE buffer (10 mM Tris, pH 7.4, 1 mM EDTA)			Store at 4 °C
Elution buffer (1% SDS; 0.1 M NaHCO3)			Prepare fresh
5 M NaCl			Store at RT
0.5 M EDTA			Store at RT
1 M Tris-HCl, pH 6.5			Store at RT
Table of Specific Reagents
Clay Adams Brand Nutator	Becton Dickinson	Model: 421105
Magnetic Stand	Promega	Z5342
Qiaquick PCR Purification Kit	Qiagen	28106
Masonix Sonicator 3000	QSonica	Model: S3000
UV Spectrophotometer	NanoDrop Technologies	ND-1000
Heating Block	VWR	13259-030
Rotator	VWR	80085-692
Refrigerated bench top centrifuge	Beckman Coulter	Model: Allegra X-12R
Microcentrifuge	Eppendorf	5415 D
Table of Equipment