Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California 5 articles published in JoVE Developmental Biology Using Avian Skin Explants to Study Tissue Patterning and Organogenesis Tingxin Jiang1, Maeve Secor2, Rusty Lansford3, Randall B. Widelitz1, Cheng Ming Chuong1 1Department of Pathology, Keck School of Medicine of University of Southern California, 2Molecular and Computational Biology, University of Southern California, 3Department of Radiology, Keck School of Medicine of University of Southern California Here we describe protocols for three types of avian embryonic skin explant cultures that can be used to examine tissue interactions, 4D imaging timelapse movie (3D plus time), global or local perturbation of molecular function, and systems biology characterization. Developmental Biology Modeling Paracrine Noncanonical Wnt Signaling In Vitro Omar Toubat1, Jongkyu Choi1, S. Ram Kumar1,2,3 1Department of Surgery, Keck School of Medicine of USC, 2Department of Pediatrics, Keck School of Medicine of USC, 3 The present study outlines a highly reproducible and tractable method to study paracrine noncanonical Wnt signaling events in vitro. This protocol was applied to evaluate the impact of paracrine Wnt5a signaling in murine neural crest cells and myoblasts. Neuroscience Retinal Vascular Reactivity as Assessed by Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography Sam Kushner-Lenhoff1, Bright S. Ashimatey1, Amir H. Kashani1,2 1Department of Ophthalmology, USC Roski Eye Institute, 2USC Ginsberg Institute for Biomedical Therapeutics, Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California This article describes a method for measuring retinal vasculature reactivity in vivo with human subjects using a gas breathing provocation technique to deliver vasoactive stimuli while acquiring retinal images. Developmental Biology Three-dimensional Organotypic Cultures of Vestibular and Auditory Sensory Organs Ksenia Gnedeva1,2, A. J. Hudspeth3, Neil Segil1,2 1Department of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California, 2Caruso Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California, 3Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Laboratory of Sensory Neuroscience, The Rockefeller University Three-dimensional organotypic cultures of the murine utricle and cochlea in optically clear collagen I gels preserve innate tissue morphology, allow for mechanical stimulation through adjustment of matrix stiffness, and permit virus-mediated gene delivery. Biology Isolation of Myofibroblasts from Mouse and Human Esophagus Matthew Gargus1, Chao Niu1, Anisa Shaker1 1Department of Medicine, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California We present a protocol to generate primary cultures of murine and human esophageal stromal cells with a myofibroblast phenotype. Cultured cells have spindle shaped morphology, express α-SMA and vimentin, and lack epithelial, hematopoietic and endothelial cell surface markers. Characterized stromal cells can be used in functional studies of epithelial-stromal interactions.
