Intraventricular Transplantation of Engineered Neuronal Precursors for In Vivo Neuroarchitecture Studies

Summary

Based on in vitro lentiviral engineering of neuronal precursors, their co-transplantation into wild-type brains and paired morphometric evaluation of "test" and "control" derivatives, this method allows accurate modeling of in vivo gene control of neocortical neuron morphology in a simple and affordable way.

Abstract

Gene control of neuronal cytoarchitecture is currently the subject of intensive investigation. Described here is a simple method developed to study in vivo gene control of neocortical projection neuron morphology. This method is based on (1) in vitro lentiviral engineering of neuronal precursors as "test" and "control" cells, (2) their co-transplantation into wild-type brains, and (3) paired morphometric evaluation of their neuronal derivatives. Specifically, E12.5 pallial precursors from panneuronal, genetically labeled donors, are employed for this purpose. They are engineered to take advantage of selected promoters and tetON/OFF technology, and they are free-hand transplanted into neonatal lateral ventricles. Later, upon immunofluorescence profiling of recipient brains, silhouettes of transplanted neurons are fed into NeurphologyJ open source software, their morphometric parameters are extracted, and average length and branching index are calculated. Compared to other methods, this one offers three main advantages: it permits achieving of fine control of transgene expression at affordable costs, it only requires basic surgical skills, and it provides statistically reliable results upon analysis of a limited number of animals. Because of its design, however, it is not adequate to address non cell-autonomous control of neuroarchitecture. Moreover, it should be preferably used to investigate neurite morphology control after completion of neuronal migration. In its present formulation, this method is exquisitely tuned to investigate gene control of glutamatergic neocortical neuron architecture. Taking advantage of transgenic lines expressing EGFP in other specific neural cell types, it can be re-purposed to address gene control of their architecture.

Introduction

Here we describe a simple method we developed to dissect in vivo gene control of neuronal cytoarchitecture. Based on in vitro engineering of neuronal precursors, their transplantation into neonatal brain and paired morphometric evaluation of "test" and "control" cells, it allows to unveil functional implications of test genes in fine control of neuronal morphology in a fast and affordable way. To investigate in vivo gene control of neuronal architecture, three key technical issues must be addressed: (1) achieving an adequately patterned gene-of-interest (GOI) expression and an accurate quantitative control of it; (2) obtaining a properly segmented....

Protocol

All methods and procedures described here have been approved by the SISSA Organismo preposto al Benessere Animale (SISSA IACUC).

1. Generation of engineered "green" progenitor pools

1. Preparation of the "green" pool
   1. Mate a wild-type CD1 female with a Mtapt^EGFP/+ founder¹⁶. Euthanize the pregnant dam by cervical dislocation at 12.5 days post-coitum (day 0 is determined by vaginal plug inspection) and harvest the embryonic day 12.5 (E12.5) embryos. Set them in individual wells of a 24 multiwell plate in cold PBS solution.
   2. Quickly....

Results

There are five primary datasets providing useful information about key aspects of the procedure, the first being (1) efficiency of neural precursors transduction and co-transduction by lentiviral vectors. (2) An example of key features of the promoters employed to drive the "test gene". (3) An example of engineered cells ready for transplantation. (4) A cartoon including key procedural details of cell microinjection into the neonatal brain. (5) A synopsis of the whole morphometric.......

Discussion

Specific aspects/steps of this procedure are critical and require special attention. First, (a) operators must be adequately pretrained to safely manipulate lentiviruses in a BSL-2 compliant lab environment. Second, (b) prior to mix "test" and "control" neural preparations, it is mandatory to carefully wash the two corresponding neurosphere suspensions as described, in order to prevent any delayed cross-infection of the two preparations due to unwanted lentiviral carry over. Third, (c) while transplanting.......

Materials

List of materials used in this article

Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
0.3 mL syringe	BD	320840	store at RT
0.45 μm sterile filter	Millex-HV	SLHU033RS	store at RT
12 multiwell plate	Falcon	353043	store at RT
1X PBS	Gibco	14190-094	store at RT
24 multiwell plate	Falcon	351147	store at RT
anti-EGFP antibody, chicken polyclonal, RRID:AB_371416	Tebubio	GTX13970	store at -20 °C
anti-RFP antibody, rat monoclonal, RRID:AB_10795839	Antibodies Online	ABIN334653	store at -20 °C
anti-Tubb3 antibody, mouse monoclonal, RRID:AB_2313773	Covance	MMS-435P	store at -20 °C
Aspirator tube assemblies kit for calibrated microcapillary pipettes	Sigma	A5177-5EA	store at RT
Blue light lamp	Nightsea	BLS2	store at RT
Borosilicate capillaries	Kwik-Fil	TW150-4	store at RT
BSA	Sigma	A9647	store at -20 °C
Bürker chamber	Sigma	BR719520	0.0025 mm2, 0.100 mm
Cryo-inclusion medium (Killik)	Bio-Optica	05-9801	store at RT
DAPI	Sigma	D9542	store at -20 °C
Disposable embedding mold	Bio-Optica	07MP7070	store at RT
DMEM/F-12	Gibco	31331-028	store at +4 °C
Dnase I	Roche	10104159001	store at -20 °C
Doxycicline	Sigma	D1822	store at -20 °C
Dumont forceps #3c	Fine Science Tools	11231-20	store at RT
Dumont forceps #5	Fine Science Tools	11251-20	store at RT
EGF	Gibco	PHG0311	store at -20 °C
EGTA	Sigma	E3889	store at RT
FGF	Gibco	PHG0261	store at -20 °C
Fine scissors - Sharp	Fine Science Tools	14060-09	store at RT
Fungizone (Amphotericin B)	Gibco	15290018	store at -20 °C
Glucose	Sigma	G8270	store at RT
GlutaMAX Supplement	Gibco	35050061	store at RT
Goat anti-chicken Alexa 488	Invitrogen	A11039	store at -20 °C
Goat anti-rat Alexa 594	Invitrogen	A11007	store at -20 °C
Heparin Solution	Stem Cell Technologies	07980	store at -20 °C
N2 Supplement	Gibco	17502048	store at -20 °C
Optical fibers	Leica	CLS150X
P1000 puller	Sutter Instruments	P-1000 model
Parafilm	Bemis	PM-996	store at RT
Pen Strep	Sigma	P0781	store at -20 °C
Petri dish	Falcon	353003	store at RT
PFA	Sigma	158127	store at RT
Plasmid #363 [LV_TREt_(IRES)PLAP]	built in house		store at -20 °C
Plasmid #386 [LV_pTa1_mCherry]	built in house		store at -20 °C
Plasmid #401 [LV_pTa1_rtTA(M2)]	built in house		store at -20 °C
Plasmid #408 [LV_Ppgk1p_rtTA(M2)]	built in house		store at -20 °C
Plasmid #484 [LV_lacZ]	Addgene	12108	store at -20 °C
Plasmid #529 [LV_Pgk1p_mCherry]	built in house		store at -20 °C
Plasmid #730 [LV_pSyn_rtTA(M2)]	built in house		store at -20 °C
Scalpel	Braun	BB515	store at RT
Steromicroscope	Leica	MZ6	store at RT
Trypan blue	Gibco	15250-061	store at RT
Trypsin	Gibco	15400-054	store at -20 °C
Trypsin inhibitor	Sigma	T6522	store at -20 °C