This video describes a method for spatial separation of three leukemic cell subpopulations: the suspended leukemic cells freely floating in the media, phase bright leukemic cells adhered to the surface of the mesenchymal stromal cell monolayer, and the phase dim leukemic cells that have migrated beneath the mesenchymal stromal cell monolayer from 2D co-culture.
Protocol
1. Separating 3 Subpopulations within Co-culture
Collection of suspension (S) tumor subpopulation.
Aspirate media from co-culture plate with pipette and gently re-apply the same media to rinse the plate and collect media containing leukemic cells in a 15 ml conical tube. The leukemic cells collected are the S subpopulation.
Collection of Phase Bright (PB) tumor subpopulation.
Add 10 ml fresh media back onto co-culture plate. Rinse vigorously by pipetting added media up and down approximately 5 times to remove adherent leukemic cells but not hard enough to dislodge adherent BMSC/OB component.
Aspirate with pipette and collect media in a 15 ml conical tube. The collected cells are the PB subpopulation.
Collection of Phase Dim (PD) tumor subpopulation.
Rinse plate with 1 ml PBS to remove remaining media. Trypsinize co-culture plate with 3 ml trypsin and place into 37 °C incubator for 5 min.
Remove plate out of incubator and gently tap sides of the plate to dislodge adherent BMSC/OB.
Add 1 ml fetal bovine serum (FBS) and pipette up and down 3-5 times to break apart large cell aggregates.
Collect media with cells in a 15 ml conical tube. These cells are the unpurified PD subpopulation with BMSC/OB as well.
Centrifuge 3 isolated subpopulations at 400 x g for 7 min. Aspirate and discard supernatant then individually resuspend pellets in 1 ml pre-warmed media. Cells are ready to be loaded onto a G10 column.
Divulgations
The authors have nothing to disclose.
Materials
50 ml conical centrifuge tubes
World Wide Medical Products
41021039
Preservative solution for
cytology specimens
15 ml conical centrifuge tubes
Novacyt
NA
Used for cell collection
Fetal Bovine Serum
Sigma
F6178
0.05% Trypsin
Mediatech, Inc
5229 TEC 5
25-053-CI
100 x 20 mm Cell Culture Dishes
Greiner Bio-One
664160
Culture media
Osteoblast culture media
PromoCell
C-27001
For human osteoblast media
RPMI 1640 media
Mediatech, Inc.
15-040
For tumor media prepation
Cell lines
Human Osteoblasts
PromoCell
C-12720
Human osteoblast were cultured according to the supplier’s recommendations.
Human Bone Morrow Stromal Cells
WVU Biospecimen Core
De-identified primary human leukemia and bone marrow stromal cells (BMSC) were provided by the Mary Babb Randolph Cancer Center (MBRCC) Biospecimen Processing Core and the West Virginia University Department of Pathology Tissue Bank. BMSC cultures were established as previously described (*)
Leukemic cells
REH
ATCC
ATCC-CRL-8286
REH cells were cultured according to the supplier’s recommendations and recommended media.
SD-1
DSMZ
ACC 366
SD-1 were cultured according to the supplier’s recommendations and recommended media.
Leukemic Subpopulation Harvest: A Method for Spatial Separation of Leukemic Cell Subpopulations from 2D Co-culture. J. Vis. Exp. (Pending Publication), e20261, doi: (2023).