Microdissection and Dissociation of the Murine Oviduct: Individual Segment Identification and Single Cell Isolation

Summary

A method for microdissection of the mouse oviduct that allows collection of the individual segments while maintaining RNA integrity is presented. In addition, non-enzymatic oviductal cell dissociation procedure is described. The methods are appropriate for subsequent gene and protein analysis of the functionally different oviductal segments and dissociated oviductal cells.

Abstract

Mouse model systems are unmatched for the analysis of disease processes because of their genetic manipulability and the low cost of experimental treatments. However, because of their small body size, some structures, such as the oviduct with a diameter of 200-400 μm, have proven to be relatively difficult to study except by immunohistochemistry. Recently, immunohistochemical studies have uncovered more complex differences in oviduct segments than were previously recognized; thus, the oviduct is divided into four functional segments with different ratios of seven distinct epithelial cell types. The different embryological origins and ratios of the epithelial cell types likely make the four functional regions differentially susceptible to disease. For example, precursor lesions to serous intraepithelial carcinomas arise from the infundibulum in mouse models and from the corresponding fimbrial region in the human fallopian tube. The protocol described here details a method for microdissection to subdivide the oviduct in such a way to yield a sufficient amount and purity of RNA necessary for downstream analysis such as reverse transcription-quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) and RNA sequencing (RNAseq). Also described is a mostly non-enzymatic tissue dissociation method appropriate for flow cytometry or single cell RNAseq analysis of fully differentiated oviductal cells. The methods described will facilitate further research utilizing the murine oviduct in the field of reproduction, fertility, cancer, and immunology.

Introduction

The murine oviduct is similar in function and morphology to the human fallopian tube¹. Both consist of a pseudostratified ciliated epithelium, consisting of two historically described epithelial resident cells: ciliated cells and secretory cells^1,2. The oviduct has three classically recognized segments: the infundibulum, the ampulla, and the isthmus. In a recent study, Harwalkar et al.³ investigated oviduct morphology and gene expression leading to the expansion of the categorization of resident epithelial cells to seven distinct populations. In addition....

Protocol

All animal handling and procedures were approved by the University of California, Riverside institutional animal care and use committee and were in accordance with guidelines from the American Association for Laboratory Animal Care, the United States Department of Agriculture, and the National Institutes of Health. The described method utilized C57BL/6 adult, female mice. All animals were euthanized by decapitation prior to tissue harvesting.

NOTE: An overview of the protocol, which uses a blue dye to assist in efficient dissection and uncoiling of the oviduct, is shown in the first figure (Figure 1).

Results

The described dissociation protocol yields 100,000-120,000 cells per mouse with pooling of both oviducts. The method is gentle enough to leave multi-ciliated cell borders intact, allowing for a distinction between multi-ciliated cells and secretory cells, and verifying that the digestion method is gentle enough to prevent de-differentiation. Representative immunofluorescence images in Figure 5 show small cell clumps following step 4.2.1, fixed for 3 min in 4% paraformaldehyde (PFA)/ DPBS, wa.......

Discussion

The three segments of the oviduct are histologically, morphologically, and functionally distinct^1,2,3. The epithelium varies greatly from one end of the oviduct to the other. Ciliated cells dominate at the fimbrial/infundibular end, while secretory cells dominate in the isthmic region¹. While this overall gradient has been recognized for some time, recent work has uncovered more distinctions among the ovi.......

Materials

List of materials used in this article

Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
0.5 mm Stainless steel bead mix	Next Advance	SSB05	Mix 1:1 with 1.4 mm SSB14B, sterilized
1.4 mm Stainless steel bead mix	Next Advance	SSB14B	Mix 1:1 with 0.5 mm SSB05, sterilized
1X Dulbecco's Phosphate Buffered Saline A, pH 7.4 (DPBS)	Gibco	21600-010	Cold, sterile
25G needle	BD	305122
60 mm sterile petri dishes	Corning	430166
70 μm cell meshes	Fisherbrand	22-636-548
Agilent Eukaryote Total RNA 6000 Pico Chip kit	Agilent 2100 Bioanalyzer	5067-1513
Bead Bullet Blender Tissue Homogenizer	Next Advance	BBY24M
Bioanlyzer	Agilent 2100 Bioanalyzer
Bovine serum albumin	Sigma Aldrich	A7906
Cold plate/pack/surface of choice	N/A	N/A	Kept at -20 °C for dissection
Dental wax	Polysciences Inc.	403
Dulbecco’s Modified Eagle’s Medium (DMEM)/ Ham’s F12	Corning	10-090-CV	Prepare dissection medium: DMEM/ Ham’s F12, 10% FBS, 25 mM Hepes, 1% Pen-Strep
Fetal Bovine Serum	Corning	35-015CV
Fine point forceps of choice	N/A	N/A
Glycine	Sigma Aldrich	G712b	Immunocytochemical validation images
Goat anti-mouse IgG Alexa Fluor 555	Invitrogen	A-21422	Immunocytochemical validation images
Goat anti-rabbit IgG Alexa Fluor 488	Invitrogen	A-11001	Immunocytochemical validation images
Hepes	Sigma Aldrich	H-3784
Hoescht 33342	Cell Signaling Technologies	4082S	Immunocytochemical validation images
Inverted compound microscope	Keyence BZ-X700
Mouse anti-mouse Occludin	Invitrogen	33-1500	Immunocytochemical validation images
Non-enzymatic dissociation buffer	N/A		5 mM EDTA, 1 g/L glucose, 0.4% BSA, 1X DPBS
Nylon macro-mesh 1 mm x 1 mm	Thomas Scientific	1210U04
Paraformaldehyde	Sigma Aldrich	P-6148	Immunocytochemical validation images
Pen-Strep	MP Biomedicals	10220-718
Prolong Gold Antifade Reagent	Cell Signaling Technologies	9071S	Immunocytochemical validation images: antifade mounting medium
Pronase	Sigma Aldrich	10165921001	Prepare pronase digestion medium: 0.15% pronase in DMEM/Ham's F12, sterile
Propidium Iodide	Roche	11 348 639 001	Viability validation images
Rabbit anti-mouse Acetylated-Tubulin	Abcam	ab179484	Immunocytochemical validation images
RBC lysis buffer	BD Biosciences	555899
RNeasy Mini Kit	Qiagen	74134	Utilized for on-column purification in text
Spring form microdissection scissors	Roboz Surgical	RS-5610
Sterile 3 mL bulb pipettors	Globe Scientific	137135
Toluidine blue	Alfa Aesar	J66015	Prepare toluidine blue solution: 1% in 1X DPBS, sterile
Tris-Buffered Saline-Tween (TBST)	N/A	N/A	Immunocytochemical validation images; 0.1 N NaCl, 10 mM Tris-Cl pH 7.5, 1% Tween 20
Triton-X-100	Mallinckrodt Inc.	3555	Immunocytochemical validation images
Trizol RNA Extraction Reagent	Invitrogen	15596026	Referred to as RNA extraction reagent. Nucelase-free water, chloroform and isoproponal are required in supplement of performing Trizol extraction per manufacturer's guidelines