Sep 14, 2021

Public workspaceAnalysis of Lysophagic Flux in Cultured Induced Neurons using RFP-GFP-galectin3

  • 1Department of Cell Biology, Harvard Medical School, Boston MA 02115
Icon indicating open access to content
QR code linking to this content
Protocol CitationVinay Eapen, Harper JW, Melissa Hoyer, sharan_swarup 2021. Analysis of Lysophagic Flux in Cultured Induced Neurons using RFP-GFP-galectin3. protocols.io https://dx.doi.org/10.17504/protocols.io.bx48pqzw
Manuscript citation:
Eapen VV, Swarup S, Hoyer MJ, Paulo JA, Harper JW, Quantitative proteomics reveals the selectivity of ubiquitin-binding autophagy receptors in the turnover of damaged lysosomes by lysophagy. eLife doi: 10.7554/eLife.72328
License: This is an open access protocol distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License,  which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited
Protocol status: Working
We use this protocol and it’s working
Created: September 09, 2021
Last Modified: May 31, 2024
Protocol Integer ID: 53120
Keywords: ASAPCRN
Disclaimer
DISCLAIMER – FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY; USE AT YOUR OWN RISK

The protocol content here is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal, medical, clinical, or safety advice, or otherwise; content added to protocols.io is not peer reviewed and may not have undergone a formal approval of any kind. Information presented in this protocol should not substitute for independent professional judgment, advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Any action you take or refrain from taking using or relying upon the information presented here is strictly at your own risk. You agree that neither the Company nor any of the authors, contributors, administrators, or anyone else associated with protocols.io, can be held responsible for your use of the information contained in or linked to this protocol or any of our Sites/Apps and Services.
Abstract
Lysophagy-the selective elimination of damaged lysosomes by the autophagy pathway-is a critical housekeeping mechanism in cells. This pathway surveils lysosomes and selectively demarcates terminally damaged lysosomes for elimination. Among the most upstream signaling proteins in this pathway are the glycan binding proteins-Galectins-which recognize N and O linked glycan chains on the luminal side of transmembrane lysosomal proteins. These glycosyl modifications are only accessible to galectin proteins upon extensive lysosomal membrane rupture and serve as a sensitive measure of lysosomal damage and eventual clearance by selective autophagy. Indeed, prior work has shown that immunofluorescence of Galectin-3 serves as a convenient proxy for lysophagic flux in tissue culture cells (Aits et al., 2015; Maejima et al., 2013). Here we describe our method for monitoring GFP positive RFP-GFP-galectin-3 GFP positive puncta clearance as a proxy for turnover of damaged lysosomes via immunofluorescence and confocal imaging.
Materials
ABC
REAGENT or RESOURCE SOURCE IDENTIFIER
Chemicals
LLoMe (L-Leucyl-L-Leucine methyl ester (hydrochloride)) Cayman Chemical 16008
Dulbecco’s MEM (DMEM), F12 Thermo 11320033
Phosphate Buffered Saline 1X Corning 21-031-CV
E8 components See protocol dx.doi.org/10.17504/protocols.io.bsacnaaw
ND1 and ND2 components See protocol dx.doi.org/10.17504/protocols.io.br9em93e
Hygromycin B Life Technologies 10687-010
pAC150 GFP-RFP-LGALS3 Addgene #175778; RRID:Addgene_175778
pAC150 GFP-RFP-LGALS3 R186S Addgene #175779; RRID:Addgene_175779
pCMV-hyPBase hyperactive piggyBac vector Yusa et al 2011 Available upon request at the Sanger Institute Achives
Software
Cell Profiler CellProfiler v4.0.6 https://cellprofiler.org/
Fiji ImageJ V.2.0.0 https://imagej.net/software/fiji/
Metamorph Metamorph v https://www.moleculardevices.com/products/cellular-imaging-systems/acquisition-and-analysis-software/metamorph-microscopy#gref
Hardware
ThermoFisher Neon Electroporator & Kit
Electroporation of PB vectors. Use ThermoFisher kit and ThermoFisher Neon Electroporator to electroporate ES cells with PB vector and PB helper vector.
Electroporation of PB vectors. Use ThermoFisher kit and ThermoFisher Neon Electroporator to electroporate ES cells with PB vector and PB helper vector.
Add 10ml buffer R to a sterile 1.5ml tube. Add 0.5µg of pAC150 GFP-RFP-LGALS3 or pAC150 GFP-RFP-LGALS3 R186S vector and 0.5µg of pCMV-hyPBase hyperactive piggyBac vector. Pipet up and down to mix. Let it sit at RT for 10min. This is enough for 2 transfections (== one 6 well).
Incubation
Pipetting
Mix
Individualize cells with Accutase. Neutralize Accutase with 5 times volume E8 with Rock inhibitor.
Pipetting
Count cells. You will need 2x105 for each transfection.
Spin down cells. Let it sit for a while so all the residue media can go down to the bottom of the tube. If the residue media is too much, take it out with a P200 pipet.
Pipetting
Resuspend cells to a concentration of 2x105 per 5 ml (ie 4x107 per ml) using buffer R. You don’t have to take all the residue media off but you will need to take into account the volume of residue media so you are not too much off.
Pipetting
Prepare a 6 well matrigel coated plate. Add 2mL of E8+ rock inhibitor (1:1000) to the wells you will use. Two transfections go into one well.
Pipetting
Wipe the Neon pipet station with EtOH and place it inside the hood.
Add 3ml of electrolytic buffer (buffer E) to the neon tube. Place the tube inside the station. You should feel a click before the tube is securely seated in the station.
Use program 13 from the optimization tab for electroporation parameter (Voltage: 1100. Pulse width: 20 Pulse number: 2 ). Program 9 should also work.
When everything is ready, mix 10-11ml of resuspended cells with the plasmid containing R buffer. The final volume should be in the range of 21-22ml.
Pipetting
Take up a neon tip, pipet 10ml of the cell protein mix and electroporate with program 13. It is important to pipet slowly to avoid air bubble formation. It is also important to insert the pipet slowly into the station, especially during the end of the insertion when you will feel a click. Help the pipet down slowly during the clicking so there is no sudden movement of the tip, which might create tiny air bubbles.
Pipetting
If you see air bubble in the tip, take it out, push everything out of the tip and repipet the mixture.
Critical
If you see sparking during the electroporation, your efficiency will reduce significantly.
Critical
Once electroporation is complete, push everything into one well of a 6 well plate. Do not pipet up and down with Neon tip.
Pipetting
Repeat the same procedure with the same tip and the left over cell mixture. Place the second electroporated mixture into the same well.
Pipetting
Disperse cells evenly in the well and place cells in a low O2 incubator. 17. Put electroporated cells into low oxygen incubator for 2 days
Pipetting
Select cells with 50mg/mL hygromycin B 4 days post-electroporation. Grow cells in selection medium for 7-10 days until there is no longer any cell death and every cell has integration of the GFP-RFP-LGALS3 or GFP-RFP-LGALS3 R186S.
Differentiation of Stable Cell ES H9 line expressing RFP-GFP-galectin3 to induced neurons (iN)
Differentiation of Stable Cell ES H9 line expressing RFP-GFP-galectin3 to induced neurons (iN)
Differentiation to induced neurons (iN) is done by following the protocol “Neural differentiation of AAVS1-TREG3-NGN2 pluripotent stem cells (dx.doi.org/10.17504/protocols.io.br9em93e)
Analysis of RFP-GFP-galectin3 clearance after LloMe damage via confocal microscopy
Analysis of RFP-GFP-galectin3 clearance after LloMe damage via confocal microscopy
To help get spread out iNeurons for imaging, when cells get 90 percent confluent at any point in the day 5-7 range, cells are plated into onto 35 mm-glass bottom dishes (No. 1.5, 14 mm glass diameter, MatTek) at a low confluency (approximately 1x105 cells per 2mL dish).
Pipetting
At day 12, 2h prior to LLoMe treatment, 0.75mL of media is removed to leave 0.75mL media. This 0.75mL media is saved as “condition media.” 0.75mL of fresh ND2 media is added so that the iN are in a fed state. Each well should contain 5mL media.
Pipetting
5mL of fresh ND2/LLoMe is added to a final concentration of 500 mM of LLoMe in 2mL. Cells are treated for 1h.
Pipetting
Mix
Fresh ND2 media is added to the condition media (every 0.75mL condition media gets 1.25mL of fresh ND2). The LLoMe-containing media is removed from the cells and replaced with the 2mL condition media/fresh ND2 media mixture that does not contain LLoMe.
Pipetting
Mix
After 12h, cells are washed one time with phosphate buffered saline (1xPBS) and then fixed with 4% paraformaldehyde in PBS for 15min at room temperature (RT). Then the fixation media is replaced with 1xPBS.
Pipetting
Cells are imaged at RT using a Yokogawa CSU-X1 spinning disk confocal on a Nikon Ti-E inverted microscope at the Nikon Imaging Center in Harvard Medical School. Nikon Perfect Focus System was used to maintain cell focus over time. The microscope is equipped with a Nikon Plan Apo 40x/1.30 N.A or 100x/1.40 N.A objective lens. 488nm (100mW) and 561nm (100mW) laser lines are controlled by AOTF.  All images are collected with a Hamamatsu ORCA-ER cooled CCD camera (6.45 µm2 photodiode) with MetaMorph image acquisition software.
Imaging
Z series are displayed as maximum z-projections and saved using Fiji software.
The GFP and RFP positive LGALS3 puncta are detected using Cell Profiler with the same pipeline applied for each condition (see attached CellProfiler pipeline). Each cell area is first defined using a “identify primary objects” module that included objects 200 to 1000 pixels units, and each puncta is marked using a “identify primary objects” module that included objects 2 to 20 pixels units both with an optimized “robust background” threshold. Each cell for each condition is thresholded in the same way with a consistent pipeline. Object size and shape is measured, and each punctum is related to its respective cell to yield a puncta per cell readout.
Computational step
Each channel z series are brightness and contrast adjusted equally and then converted to RGB for publication using FIJI software.