Analyzing Oxidative Stress in Murine Intestinal Organoids using Reactive Oxygen Species-Sensitive Fluorogenic Probe

Summary

The present protocol describes a method to detect reactive oxygen species (ROS) in the intestinal murine organoids using qualitative imaging and quantitative cytometry assays. This work can be potentially extended to other fluorescent probes to test the effect of selected compounds on ROS.

Abstract

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) play essential roles in intestinal homeostasis. ROS are natural by-products of cell metabolism. They are produced in response to infection or injury at the mucosal level as they are involved in antimicrobial responses and wound healing. They are also critical secondary messengers, regulating several pathways, including cell growth and differentiation. On the other hand, excessive ROS levels lead to oxidative stress, which can be deleterious for cells and favor intestinal diseases like chronic inflammation or cancer. This work provides a straightforward method to detect ROS in the intestinal murine organoids by live imaging and flow cytometry, using a commercially available fluorogenic probe. Here the protocol describes assaying the effect of compounds that modulate the redox balance in intestinal organoids and detect ROS levels in specific intestinal cell types, exemplified here by the analysis of the intestinal stem cells genetically labeled with GFP. This protocol may be used with other fluorescent probes.

Introduction

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are natural by-products of cellular metabolism. They can also be actively produced by specialized enzymatic complexes such as the membrane-bound NADPH-Oxidases (NOX) and Dual Oxidases (DUOX), which generate superoxide anion and hydrogen peroxide¹. By expressing antioxidant enzymes and ROS scavengers, cells can finely tune their redox balance, thereby protecting tissue homeostasis². Although ROS can be highly toxic to the cells and damage DNA, proteins, and lipids, they are crucial signaling molecules². In the intestinal epithelium, moderate ROS levels are required for....

Protocol

All animal experiments were carried out after approval by the Institut Pasteur Use Committee and by the French Ministry of Agriculture no. 2016-0022. All the steps are performed inside a tissue culture hood.

1. Preparation of reagents and materials for culturing intestinal organoids

1. To prepare growth culture medium, mix advanced DMEM/F-12 supplemented with 1x glutamine, 1x penicillin/streptomycin (P/S) solution, 10 mM of HEPES, 50 ng/mL of murine EGF, 20 µg/mL of murine Noggin 500 ng/mL of mouse R-Spondin1 (see Table of Materials). Leave the medium at room temperature (RT) during the crypt's extraction.....

Results

As a proof of concept of the described protocol, the crypts obtained from the Lgr5-eGFP-IRES-CreERT2 mouse line were used in which intestinal stem cells display mosaic GFP expression, which was established by Barker et al., to characterize intestinal stem cells¹⁰ initially and allow to map these cells based on their GFP expression. A model is thereby provided to compare ROS levels in a specific cell type population upon different treatments. A ROS inhibitor (NAC) was used, and an inducer (tBHP), k.......

Discussion

This work provides a step-by-step protocol to isolate murine jejunal crypts, culture them into 3D organoids, and analyze ROS in organoids by combining a ROS-sensitive fluorogenic probe with qualitative microscopy imaging of whole organoids and quantitative ROS measurement using flow cytometry on single cells following organoid dissociation.

The first critical step in this method is the crypts extraction procedure. Indeed, the quality of crypts preparation is the key to successful organoids for.......

Materials

List of materials used in this article

Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
Mice
Lgr5-EGFP-IRES-creERT2 (Lgr5-GFP)	The Jackson Laboratory
Growth culture medium
Advanced DMEM F12 (DMEM/F12)	ThermoFisher	12634010
B-27 Supplement, minus vitamin A	ThermoFisher	12587010	Stock Concentration: 50x
GlutaMAX (glutamine)	ThermoFisher	35050038	Stock Concentration: 100x
Hepes	ThermoFisher	15630056	Stock Concentration: 1 M
Murine EGF	R&D	2028-EG-200	Stock Concentration: 500 µg/mL in PBS
murine Noggin	R&D	1967-NG/CF	Stock Concentration: 100 µg/mL in PBS
Murine R-spondin1	R&D	3474-RS-050	Stock Concentration: 50 µg/mL in PBS
N-2 Supplement	ThermoFisher	17502048	Stock Concentration: 100x
Penicillin-Streptomycin (P/S)	ThermoFisher	15140122	Stock Concentration: 100x (10,000 units/mL of penicillin and 10,000 µg/mL of streptomycin)
Material
70 µm cell strainer	Corning	352350
96-well round bottom	Corning	3799
ball tip scissor	Fine Science Tools GMBH	14086-09
CellROX® Deep Red Reagent	ThermoFisher	C10422
DAPI (4’,6-diamidino-2-phénylindole, dichlorhydrate) (fluorgenic probe)	ThermoFisher	D1306	stock at 10 mg/mL
DPBS 1x no calcium no magnesium (DPBS)	ThermoFisher	14190144
FLuoroBrite DMEM (DMEM no phenol red)	ThermoFisher	A1896701
Hoechst 33342	ThermoFisher	H3570	stock at 10 mg/mL
Matrigel Growth Factor Reduced, Phenol Red Free (Basement Membrane Matrix)	Corning	356231	once received thaw o/n in the fridge, keep for 1h on ice and, make 500 mL aliquots and store at -20 °C
µ-Slide 8 Well chambers	Ibidi	80826
N-acetylcysteine (NAC)	Sigma	A9165
tert-Butyl hydroperoxide (tBCHP)solution (70%wt. In H2O2)	Sigma	458139
TrypLE Express Enzyme (1X), no phenol red (trypsin)	ThermoFisher	12604013
UltraPure 0.5 M EDTA, pH8.0	ThermoFisher	15575020
Y-27632	Sigma	Y0503	Rock-inhibitor to be used to minimize cell death upon tissue dissociation
Programs and Equipment
Attune NxT (Flow Cytometer)	ThermoFischer		Flow cytometer analyzer
Fiji/ImageJ	https://imagej.net/software/fiji/downloads		images generation
FlowJo	BD Bioscience		FACS analysis
Observer.Z1	Zeiss		confocal system
Opterra (swept-field confocal)	Bruker		confocal system
high speed EMCCD Camera Evolve Delta 512	Photometrics		confocal system
Prism	GraphPad Software		statistical analysis