Using Real-Time Cell Metabolic Flux Analyzer to Monitor Osteoblast Bioenergetics

Summary

Real-time cell metabolic flux assay measures the oxygen consumption rate and extracellular acidification rate, which corresponds to mitochondrial and glycolytic adenosine triphosphate production, using pH and oxygen sensors. The manuscript explains a method to understand the energy status of osteoblasts and the characterization and interpretation of the cellular bioenergetic status.

Abstract

Bone formation by osteoblasts is an essential process for proper bone acquisition and bone turnover to maintain skeletal homeostasis, and ultimately, prevent fracture. In the interest to both optimize peak bone mass and combat various musculoskeletal diseases (i.e., post-menopausal osteoporosis, anorexia nervosa, type 1 and 2 diabetes mellitus), incredible efforts have been made in the field of bone biology to fully characterize osteoblasts throughout their differentiation process. Given the primary role of mature osteoblasts to secrete matrix proteins and mineralization vesicles, it has been noted that these processes take an incredible amount of cellular energy, or adenosine triphosphate (ATP). The overall cellular energy status is often referred to as cellular bioenergetics, and it includes a series of metabolic reactions that sense substrate availability to derive ATP to meet cellular needs. Therefore, the current method details the process of isolating primary, murine bone marrow stromal cells (BMSCs) and monitoring their bioenergetic status using the Real-time cell metabolic flux analyzer at various stages in osteoblast differentiation. Importantly, these data have demonstrated that the metabolic profile changes dramatically throughout osteoblast differentiation. Thus, using this physiologically relevant cell type is required to fully appreciate how a cell's bioenergetic status can regulate the overall function.

Introduction

The formation of bone by the osteoblast is accompanied by coordinated destruction or resorption of bones by osteoclasts. The balance between osteoblastic bone formation and osteoclast resorption is a coupled process describing bone turnover or remodeling, which is essential for skeletal homeostasis. Osteoblast dysfunction leads to impaired bone formation and results in various diseases, including osteoporosis^1,2,3. Ex vivo/in vitro differentiation of bone marrow stromal stem cells (BMSCs) to osteoblast precursors and mature osteoblasts results in the formation and de....

Protocol

All the procedures were based on the guidelines and approval of the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee at Vanderbilt University Medical center.

1. Preparation of reagents and assay setup

1. Isolation and culturing of bone marrow stromal cells (also see the previous article³⁰).
   1. Prepare complete alpha minimum essential media (αMEM) cell culture media by supplementing minimum essential media with alpha modification with 10% FBS (fetal bovine serum), 100 U/mL of penicillin, and 100 µg/mL of streptomycin.
   2. Prepare the bone marrow collection tube by trimming the end ....

Results

Figure 6: Representative graphs for routinely performed assays to understand the cellular bioenergetic profile of control vs. treatment group with their respective standard errors. (A) The.......

Discussion

The real-time cell metabolic flux analyzer can be used to explore cellular energetics under different conditions. The protocol illustrates the efficient isolation of BMSCs, culturing cells in appropriate cell culture plates, and their differentiation to mature osteoblasts, which can be used for various assays using the extracellular flux analyzer. Further, the critical steps of real-time cell metabolic flux assay, including hydration of sensor cartridges, loading of the injection ports, performing the assay, normalizatio.......

Materials

List of materials used in this article

Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
0.25% Trypsin EDTA	Sigma-Aldrich	T4049
2-cyano-3-(1-phenyl-1H-indol-3-yl)-2-propenoic acid	Sigma - Aldrich	PZ0160	UK5099
Antimycin A	Sigma - Aldrich	A8674
Ascorbic acid	Sigma-Aldrich	A4544-100G
Bis-2-(5-phenylacetamido-1,3,4-thiadiazol-2-yl)ethyl sulfide	Sigma - Aldrich	SML0601	BPTES
Carbonyl cyanide 4-(trifluoromethoxy)phenylhydrazone	Sigma - Aldrich	C2920	FCCP
Cytation 5 imaging reader	BioTek	N/A	Microplate imager
Etomoxir sodium salt hydrate	Sigma - Aldrich	E1905
Hoechst 33342 Solution (20 mM)	Thermo Scientific	62249
Insulin	Sigma - Aldrich	I6634
Oleic Acid-Albumin from bovine serum	Sigma - Aldrich	O3008
Oligomycin A - 5 mg	Sigma - Aldrich	75351
Rotenone	Sigma - Aldrich	R8875-1G
Seahorse XF 1.0 M Glucose Solution	Agilent Technologies	103577-100
Seahorse XF 100mM Pyruvate Solution	Agilent Technologies	103578-100
Seahorse XF 200mM Glutamine solution	Agilent Technologies	103579-100
Seahorse XF DMEM media	Agilent Technologies	103575-100	DMEM assay media eith 5mM HEPES, pH 7.4, without phenol red, sodium bicarbonate, glucose, pyruvate, and L-glutamine
Seahorse XFe96 Analyzer	Agilent Technologies	S7800B	Real- Time Metabolic flux analyzer
Seahorse XFe96 FluxPak	Agilent Technologies	102416-100	Includes XFe96 Sensor cartridges, Cell culture microplates, and Seahorse XF Calibrant solution
The Cell imaging 1.1.0.11 software	Agilent Technologies - BioTek
Wave software 2.6.1	Agilent Technologies
β-glycerol phosphate	Sigma-Aldrich	G9422-50G