Protein Isolation from the Developing Embryonic Mouse Heart Valve Region

Summary

The analysis of protein expression in young embryonic mouse valves has been hampered by the limited tissue available. This manuscript provides a protocol for preparing protein from developing embryonic mouse valve regions for western blot analysis.

Abstract

Western blot analysis is a commonly employed technique for detecting and quantifying protein levels. However, for small tissue samples, this analysis method may not be sufficiently sensitive to detect a protein of interest. To overcome these difficulties, we examined protocols for obtaining protein from adult human cardiac valves and modified these protocols for the developing early embryonic mouse counterparts. In brief, the mouse embryonic aortic valve regions, including the aortic valve and surrounding aortic wall, are collected in the minimal possible volume of a Tris-based lysis buffer with protease inhibitors. If required based on the breeding strategy, embryos are genotyped prior to pooling four embryonic aortic valve regions for homogenization. After homogenization, an SDS-based sample buffer is used to denature the sample for running on an SDS-PAGE gel and subsequent western blot analysis. Although the protein concentration remains too low to quantify using spectrophotometric protein quantification assays and have sample remaining for subsequent analyses, this technique can be used to successfully detect and semi-quantify phosphorylated proteins via western blot from pooled samples of four embryonic day 13.5 mouse aortic valve regions, each of which yields approximately 1 μg of protein. This technique will be of benefit for studying cell signaling pathway activation and protein expression levels during early embryonic mouse valve development.

Introduction

Being able to identify and quantify protein expression levels is a standard technique for animal- and cell-based experiments. However, despite a long-standing interest in early embryonic cardiac valve development, evaluating protein expression in this specific tissue during development is currently limited to immunohistochemistry in both the chick and mouse^1,2. Part of the difficulty of quantifying protein expression in the developing valves of most model organisms (e.g., chick and mouse) is the small size of the valves, which limits the quantity of protein that can be obtained. Thus, for quantitative analyses, researchers typically rely on RNA ext....

Protocol

NOTE: All experiments were approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

1. Excise the Aortic Valve

1. Using an approved euthanasia technique for the embryonic stage of interest, euthanize a pregnant mouse with pups at the desired embryonic day (E) of development.
2. Use 70% ethanol to sterilize the abdomen of the pregnant female. Lift the skin and muscle of the lower abdomen up and away from the internal organs, and dissect open the female’s lower abdominal cavity to allow access to the uterine horn.
3. To retrieve the uterine horn, hold the cerv....

Results

Using this preparation technique, we were able to detect phosphorylated Smad^1,5,8 (pSmad) in single aortic valve regions from E13.5 embryos. As shown in Figure 1A, the protein isolated from even a single valve region is sufficient to detect a faint pSmad band. Signal intensity increases proportionately to the number of valve regions that are pooled. Importantly, the pSmad/β-actin ratio remains nearly constant across the different sample sizes (Figure 1C). Due to the low levels.......

Discussion

The ability to quantify protein levels in early embryonic mouse and chick cardiac valve regions provides an additional tool for understanding the critical cellular signaling events for valve development. Our protocol described herein does not differ greatly from standard protein isolation procedures. However, by modifying some key steps, we have successfully obtained phosphorylated proteins from extremely small sample sizes. To achieve this outcome, the following steps are of particular importance. To ensure that quality.......

Materials

List of materials used in this article

Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
Timed-pregnant mouse			To be dissected at the embryonic stage of interest
Stereoscopic microscope	Nikon	SMZ645
0.1 M Tris, pH 7.6
Microscissors	Fine Science Tools	15003-08
Fine forceps, #5	Fine Science Tools	11251-30
Dissecting needle holders	Ted Pella Inc.	13560
Dissecting needles	Ted Pella Inc.	13561-10
Micropipette, 20 μl, with tips
Lysis buffer			50 mM Tris-HCl, pH 7.5, 150 mM NaCl, 5 mM EDTA, 1% Triton
PhosSTOP	Roche	4906845001	Add 1 tablet to 10 ml lysis buffer
TissueLyser LT	Qiagen	85600
Stainless steel beads	Qiagen	69989
Microcentrifuge