Telomerase Activity in the Various Regions of Mouse Brain: Non-Radioactive Telomerase Repeat Amplification Protocol (TRAP) Assay

Summary

Telomerase is expressed in the neonatal brain and also in distinct regions of the adult brain. We present a non-toxic time saving TRAP assay for the analysis of telomerase activity in various regions of the mouse brain and detection of differences in telomerase activity between male and female mouse brains.

Abstract

Telomerase, a ribonucleoprotein, is responsible for maintaining the telomere length and therefore promoting genomic integrity, proliferation, and lifespan. In addition, telomerase protects the mitochondria from oxidative stress and confers resistance to apoptosis, suggesting its possible importance for the surviving of non-mitotic, highly active cells such as neurons. We previously demonstrated the ability of novel telomerase activators to increase telomerase activity and expression in the various mouse brain regions and to protect motor neurons cells from oxidative stress. These results strengthen the notion that telomerase is involved in the protection of neurons from various lesions. To underline the role of telomerase in the brain, we here compare the activity of telomerase in male and female mouse brain and its dependence on age. TRAP assay is a standard method for detecting telomerase activity in various tissues or cell lines. Here we demonstrate the analysis of telomerase activity in three regions of the mouse brain by non-denaturing protein extraction using CHAPS lysis buffer followed by modification of the standard TRAP assay.

In this 2-step assay, endogenous telomerase elongates a specific telomerase substrate (TS primer) by adding TTAGGG 6 bp repeats (telomerase reaction). The telomerase reaction products are amplified by PCR reaction creating a DNA ladder of 6 bp increments. The analysis of the DNA ladder is made by 4.5% high resolution agarose gel electrophoresis followed by staining with highly sensitive nucleic acid stain.

Compared to the traditional TRAP assay that utilize ³²P labeled radioactive dCTP's for DNA detection and polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis for resolving the DNA ladder, this protocol offers a non-toxic time saving TRAP assay for evaluating telomerase activity in the mouse brain, demonstrating the ability to detect differences in telomerase activity in the various female and male mouse brain region.

Introduction

Telomerase is a ribonucleoprotein composed of telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT), the catalytic subunit of telomerase, and a RNA component (TERC). The canonical role of telomerase is to preserve the proper length of the telomeres by adding repetitive sequences (TTAGGG) to the telomeric ends, therefore promoting genomic integrity, and cell proliferation¹. Additional roles were attributed to TERT in cells, i.e. it confers resistance to apoptosis induced by various damaging agent², protects human mesenchymal stem cells from oxidative stress³, and plays a pro-survival role in fully differentiated neurons by its association to....

Protocol

Animal experiments were approved by the ethical committee for animal experiments in the Ben-Gurion University (IL-39-08-2010).

1. Mouse Brain Protein Extraction

1. Prepare 3 tubes of 15 ml each containing 5 ml Ringer's solution and place tubes on ice.
2. Sacrifice the mouse using Isoflurane anesthesia (CAUTION – use chemical hood) for 10-20 sec followed by cervical dislocation and immediate decapitation.
3. Remove the brain from the skull and rinse for a few seconds with ice cold Ringer's solution to prevent damage to the brain tissue.
4. Using a surgical blade, separate the cerebellum (CR) and br....

Results

Whole cell protein extracts were prepared from the frontal lobe (FL), brain stem (BS) and cerebellum (CR), derived from 3 CD-1 female and 3 CD-1 male mice at the ages of 1 and 3 months old for the modified TRAP assay and 3 CD-1 male mice at the age of 2 months old for the radioactive TRAP assay. Telomerase activity was detected in 1 µg proteins extract using the modified TRAP assay and 2 µg proteins extract for the radioactive TRAP assay. Detection of telomerase activity by the radioactive TRAP assay and by the modified .......

Discussion

Analysis of telomerase activity in the mouse brain via the TRAP assay consists of 4 major steps: 1) proteins extraction from specific regions of the brain tissue 2) TS primer elongation by telomerase - telomerase reaction 3) amplification of the telomerase reaction products by PCR 4) separation of the PCR products using high resolution agarose gel.

This modified TRAP assay addresses two major difficulties that rise from the traditional assay: the use of radioactive dCTP's for sensitive det.......

Materials

List of materials used in this article

Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
TRAP Mix (10x)			Made manually, mix the following in UPW: 630 mM KCl, 200 mM Tris-HCl pH 8.2, 10 mM EDTA, 15 mM MgCl2, 1 mg/ml BSA, 0.5% TWEEN (purchased from Sigma). Aliquots are frozen at -20 °C.
Ringer's solution			Made manually, mix the following in DDW: 124 mM NaCl, 3 mM KCl, 1.25 mM NaH2PO4·H2O, 2 mM MgSO4, 26 mM NaHCO3, 1.802 g/L D-(+)-glucose anhydrous.
Isoflurane	Minrad INC.	NDC 60307-110-10	Handle with care in a chemical hood
dNTPs (10 mM)	Sigma	D7295
TS primer (5'-AATCCGTCGAGCAGAGTT-3')	Sigma		DNA oligos orderd in DRY format and UPW added according to requierd concentration
ACX primer (5'-GCGCGGCTTACCCTTACCCTTACCCTAACC-3')	Sigma		DNA oligos orderd in DRY format and UPW added according to requierd concentration
Titanium Taq Polymerase/Buffer	Clontech	S1792/S1793
High Resolution agarose	Sigma	A4718	Any high quality high-resolution agarose may be sutible
Mini-gel apparatus	Bio-Rad	170-4466
Nucleic Acid Stain (GEL-RED)	Biotium	41003
IC primer (5'-ATCGCTTCTCGGCCTTTT-3')	Sigma		DNA oligos orderd in DRY format and UPW added according to requierd concentration
CHAPS lysis buffer	Cell Signaling Technology	9852S	Add PMSF (protease inhibitor) to a final concentration of 1 mM
Ultra Pure Water (UPW)	Biological Industries	01-866-1B
CD-1 mice	HARLAN Laboratories INC.