Whole Retinal Explants from Chicken Embryos for Electroporation and Chemical Reagent Treatments

Summary

This protocol describes a method to dissect, experimentally manipulate and culture whole retinal explants from chicken embryos. The explant cultures are useful when high success rate, efficacy and reproducibility are needed to test the effects of plasmids for electroporation and/or reagent substances, i.e., enzymatic inhibitors.

Abstract

The retina is a good model for the developing central nervous system. The large size of the eye and most importantly the accessibility for experimental manipulations in ovo/in vivo makes the chicken embryonic retina a versatile and very efficient experimental model. Although the chicken retina is easy to target in ovo by intraocular injections or electroporation, the effective and exact concentration of the reagents within the retina may be difficult to fully control. This may be due to variations of the exact injection site, leakage from the eye or uneven diffusion of the substances. Furthermore, the frequency of malformations and mortality after invasive manipulations such as electroporation is rather high.

This protocol describes an ex ovo technique for culturing whole retinal explants from chicken embryos and provides a method for controlled exposure of the retina to reagents. The protocol describes how to dissect, experimentally manipulate, and culture whole retinal explants from chicken embryos. The explants can be cultured for approximately 24 hr and be subjected to different manipulations such as electroporation. The major advantages are that the experiment is not dependent on the survival of the embryo and that the concentration of the introduced reagent can be varied and controlled in order to determine and optimize the effective concentration. Furthermore, the technique is rapid, cheap and together with its high experimental success rate, it ensures reproducible results. It should be emphasized that it serves as an excellent complement to experiments performed in ovo.

Introduction

The retina is part of the central nervous system and it is, with its relative simplicity and well-characterized cellular architecture, a popular model for studying central nervous system development. The eye of the chicken embryo is relatively large in comparison to the rest of the embryo. It is therefore easily accessible in ovo for experimental manipulations, such as injections or electroporation, and serves as an excellent tool to gain knowledge about retinal cell and developmental biology in vivo. Despite these major advantages, survival of the embryos can be low when experiments are invasive such as with electroporations, repeated injections, or....

Protocol

This protocol is performed in accordance with the recommendations in the “Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals of the Association for research in vision and ophthalmology”.

1. Egg Handling and Eye collection

1. Store white Leghorn eggs at 12-14 °C for no longer than 1 week. If available, use a refrigerated wine cooler to store the fertilized eggs.
   Note: Higher store temperatures lead to abnormal development of embryos, while lower temperatures increases mortality. Extended storage time increases both mortality and abnormal development.
2. Incubate the eggs in a 37.5 °C and 60% humidif....

Results

This protocol describes the preparation (Figure 1A-F) and culturing of whole retinal explants from chicken embryos. This protocol has been successfully used for whole retinal explants from embryos of st20 (E3) to st31 (E7).

Electroporation of DNA plasmids into whole retinal explants allows for labeling and tracing of retinal progenitor cells or over-expression of different gene products. For electroporation experiments, the pigment epithelium was carefully removed from the enu.......

Discussion

In this work a detailed protocol for dissection, electroporation or chemical treatment, and culturing of whole retinal explants from chicken embryos is presented. This protocol is easy, quick and allows for both a high success rate and reproducible results.

Electroporation of whole retinal explants produces large areas of cells that express the gene construct of interest. It is easy to correctly position the electrodes and to expose a specific portion of the retina to a define.......

Materials

List of materials used in this article

Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
1xPBS (tablet)	Life technologies	18912-014
10x DPBS	Life technologies	14080-048
100 mm Petri dish	VWR	734-0006
100 μl pipette tips	VWR	613-0798
1.5 ml disposable plastic cuvette	Thomas Scientific	8495V01
24-well plate	Sigma Aldrich	D7039
35 mm Petri dish	VWR	391-1998
70% ethanol	Solveco	1054
Cdk1/2 inhibitor III	217714	Calbiochem	300 nM in 0.01% DMSO
Cell culture incubator	Thermo Forma
Dissecting microscope	Leica
DMEM	Life Technologies	41966-029
Electrodes			Platina, custom made
Electro square porator ECM 830	Harvard Apparatus
F12 Nutrient mix	Life Technologies	31331-028
FBS	Life Technologies	16140-071
Forceps	AgnThos	0108-5-PS
Freezing medium NEG50	Cellab, Sweden	6502
GFP expressing DNA plasmid (pZGs)
Humidified incubator	Grumbach Brutgeraete GmbH, Asslar, Germany	8204
Insulin	Sigma Aldrich	I9278-5ML
L-glutamine	Life Technologies	25030024
Mounting medium ProLong Gold with DAPI	Life Technologies	P36935
Paraffin film	VWR	291-1214P
Paraformaldehyde	Sigma Aldrich	16005-1KG-R
Peel-A-Way embedding mold	Sigma Aldrich	E6032
Penicillin streptomycin	Life Technologies	15140-122
PhosphoHistone 3 (PH3)	Millipore	06-570	Dilution 1/4,000
Platinum electrodes (custom made from "rondelles")	Sargenta	390-R (rondeller)	Dia: 4mm, 0.1 mm thickness
Platimun electrodes	Sonidel	CUY700P4L	Dia: 4 mm
Polyethylene pasteur pipette	VWR	612-2853
Rotator shaker	VWR	444-2900
Small spoon	VWR	231-2151
Sucrose	VWR	443815S
White Leghorn eggs			Local supplier
Wine cooler	WineMaster 24, Caso, Berlin Germany