1. Assessment of Myogenic and Engraftment Potential
The efficiency of differentiation is evaluated as the percentage of nuclei inside MyHC-positive cells: proceed to the next step if the efficiency is >50%.
2. Transplantation in Mouse Models of Muscular Dystrophy
This transplantation assay allows evaluating the extent of engraftment of IDEMs in mouse models of muscular dystrophy. The animals, treated as follows, can also be assessed for functional amelioration of the disease phenotype. Functional tests can be performed starting from two weeks after transplantation. In order to enhance engraftment consider performing pretransplantation treadmill exercise (as described in Protocol 3) and/or serial cell injections every three weeks for 3x (i.e. for a total of 3 injections/muscle).
3. Outcome Measures on Transplanted Dystrophic Animals: Treadmill Test
Starting from two weeks after cell transplantation, it is possible to evaluate functional amelioration of the motor capacity of treated mice with the treadmill tests. This test allows the evaluation of exercise tolerance/endurance of treated mice. A mouse is considered fatigued when lays in the resting area for more than 5 sec, without attempting to reengage the treadmill after a series of 3 consecutive mechanical stimuli (one every 5 sec). Baseline measurements start approximately one month before treatment and are used to evaluate the improvement of each single tested animal. This test can be followed by additional assays to monitor fiber fragility, force improvement, engraftment, differentiation of transplanted cells, and morphological amelioration of the transplanted muscles (see Discussion).
TROUBLESHOOTING: use a minimum of 5 age-, genotype-, and sex-matched animals/group and repeat the measurements for at least 3x after transplantation.
4. Evaluation of Cell Engraftment and Differentiation in Transplanted Muscles
Transplanted and control muscles are harvested at the appropriate time point (<2 days for short-term engraftment analysis, 2-3 weeks for mid-term and >1 month for long-term analysis). If the transplanted cells are labeled with GFP, the engraftment in freshly isolated muscles can be assessed by direct fluorescence under an UV-equipped stereomicroscope.
5. Muscle Histopathology
Histopathological analyses allow the evaluation of the morphological structure of the transplanted muscle. Architectural improvement in the tissue structure is expected as an outcome of the cell therapy approach.
Hematoxylin and eosin staining enables calculating hallmarks of regenerating muscle, such as: a) the number of myofibers; b) cross sectional area; c) the number of myofibers containing a central nucleus. Masson's trichrome is used to calculate the fibrotic index, done by subtracting the total area occupied by the skeletal myofibers from the total area of the image: the resulting area mainly reflects the connective and fat infiltrate of the muscle. All the analyses on the images could be performed using ImageJ software (NIH) with the measurement tool and cell counter plugin.
The reported representative results follow the main in vitro/in vivo assays depicted in the workflow in Figure 1. 48 hr after 4OH-tamoxifen administration MyoD-positive nuclei are identifiable within MyoD-ER transduced IDEMs in culture (Figure 2A). The cells then fuse and differentiate into multinucleated myotubes (Figure 2B). When transplanted intramuscularly into a murine model of acute muscle injury, IDEMs contribute to tissue regeneration (Figure 3). The efficacy of IDEMs in a gene- and cell-therapy setting for murine models of muscular dystrophy was assessed by the treadmill exercise tolerance test: Figure 4 shows the results obtained after transplantation of wild-type MIDEMs into Sgca-null/scid/beige mice, displaying an amelioration of the motor capacity in treated mice7. Ex vivo analyses of transplanted muscles show GFP-positive areas representing the extent of colonization of IDEMs into the host tissue (Figures 5A-C), thus demonstrating that donor cells engraft into dystrophic muscle. Importantly, transplanted cells are able to differentiate in vivo, forming new skeletal myofibers. Indeed Figure 5 shows Sgca expression from genetically corrected HIDEMs into Sgca-null/scid/beige mice (Figures 5D and 5E). Structural amelioration in the architecture of transplanted muscles can be assessed through Masson's trichrome staining: Figure 5F shows a decrease in the amount of fibrotic tissue in treated muscle.
Figure 1. Protocol flow chart. The scheme provides an overview of the IDEM-based strategy, from preliminary in vitro differentiation assays (left) to the various steps necessary to assess engraftment, myogenic potential and functional amelioration in vivo and ex vivo (right). Dark grey boxes contain the various steps described in the protocol; light grey boxes contain parts of the method not detailed in this article. Click here to view larger figure.
Figure 2. Assessment of myogenic potential in vitro. (A) Immunofluorescence showing nuclear MyoD expression in 4 out of 7 MyoD-ER transduced MIDEM nuclei after 48 hr of exposure to 4OH-tamoxifen. (B) Immunofluorescence staining for myosin heavy chain (MyHC) on 4OH-tamoxifen-induced HIDEM-derived myotubes after one week in differentiation medium (Scale bar, 200 μm). Click here to view larger figure.
Figure 3. In vivo assessment of cell engraftment in a model of acute muscle regeneration. (A) Stereomicroscopic GFP fluorescence images of freshly isolated cardiotoxin-injured tibialis anterior muscles explanted 2 weeks after intramuscular injection of 106 GFP-HIDEMs (left) and GFP-MIDEMs (center). Scale bar, 2 mm. (B) Low (top) and high (bottom) magnification pictures of the muscle transplanted with MIDEMs shown in (A) displaying GFP-positive myofibers. Scale bar, 200 μm. Click here to view larger figure.
Figure 4. Treadmill exercise tolerance test. Representative treadmill test for transplanted (IM = intramuscular; IA = intra-arterial). Sgca-null/scid/ beige mice (106 cell/injection) versus nontransplanted dystrophic and nondystrophic control immunodeficient mice. The plot shows functional amelioration of dystrophic mice transplanted with MIDEMs (12-22% more than nontransplanted animals 35 days after transplantation). Data are shown as average motor capacity relative to baseline performances (i.e. 100% represents the baseline performance of each group and only treated mice significantly improve it upon repeated measurements). *P < 0.05; **P < 0.005, one-way ANOVA. From previously published work of the authors7. Click here to view larger figure.
Figure 5. In vivo assessment of engraftment and myogenic potential in mouse models of muscular dystrophy. (A) Stereomicroscopic GFP fluorescence images of freshly isolated tibialis anterior muscles of Sgca-null/scid/beige mice explanted 3-4 weeks after intramuscular injection of 106 human (HIDEMs, left; transplantation in juvenile mice) and murine (MIDEMs; right) GFP-IDEMs. Scale bar, 2 mm. (B) Stereomicroscopic GFP fluorescence image of a freshly isolated gastrocnemius muscle explanted 3 weeks after intra-arterial injection of 106 GFP-MIDEMs. Scale bar, 1 mm. (C) Fresh frozen transverse section of the muscle transplanted with MIDEMs shown in (A) displaying a cluster of GFP-positive myofibers. Scale bar, 200 μm. (D) Immunofluorescence staining on sections of intra-muscularly transplanted muscles (as in A) showing clusters of genetically-corrected fibers, originated from grafted IDEMs. Scale bar, 150 μm. (E) Quantification of α-sarcoglycan (Sgca)-positive myofibers one month after intramuscular transplantation of genetically-corrected IDEMs into Sgca-null/scid/beige mice. (F) Masson trichrome staining of tibialis anterior muscles from transplanted and control Sgca-null/scid/beige mice (red: muscle fibers; blue: fibrosis) highlighting the reduction of the fibrotic infiltrate in treated muscle. Scale bar, 200 μm. Click here to view larger figure.
REAGENTS | |||
MegaCell DMEM | Sigma | M3942 | |
DMEM | Sigma | D5671 | |
IMDM | Sigma | I3390 | |
Horse serum | Euroclone | ECS0090L | |
Foetal Bovine Serum | Lonza | DE14801F | |
PBS Calcium/Magnesium free | Lonza | BE17-516F | |
L-Glutammine | Sigma | G7513 | |
Penicilline/Streptomicin | Sigma | P0781 | |
2-Mercaptoethanol | Gibco | 31350-010 | |
ITS (Insulin-Transferrin-Selenium) | Gibco | 51500-056 | |
Non-essential amino acid solution | Sigma | M7145 | |
Fer-In-Sol | Mead Johnson | ||
Ferlixit | Aventis | ||
Oleic Acid | Sigma | 01257-10 mg | |
Linoleic Acid | Sigma | L5900-10 mg | |
Human bFGF | Gibco | AA 10-155 | |
Grow factors-reduced Matrigel | Becton Dickinson | 356230 | |
Trypsin | Sigma | T3924 | |
Sodium heparin | Mayne Pharma | ||
Trypan blue solution | Sigma | T8154 | HARMFUL |
Patent blue dye | Sigma | 19, 821-8 | |
EDTA | Sigma | E-4884 | |
Paraformaldehyde | TAAB | P001 | HARMFUL |
Tamoxifen | Sigma | T5648 | |
4-OH Tamoxifen | Sigma | H7904 | |
pLv-CMV-MyoD-ER(T) | Addgene | 26809 | |
Cardiotoxin | Sigma | C9759 | HARMFUL |
Povidone iodine | |||
Tragachant gum | MP biomedicals | 104792 | |
Isopenthane | VWR | 24,872,323 | |
Tissue-tek OCT | Sakura | 4583 | |
Sucrose | VWR | 27,480,294 | |
Polarized glass slides | Thermo | J1800AMNZ | |
Eosin Y | Sigma | E4382 | |
Hematoxylin | Sigma | HHS32 | |
Masson's trichrome | Bio-Optica | 04-010802 | |
Mouse anti Myosin Heavy Chain antibody | DSHB | MF20 | |
Mouse anti Lamin A/C antibody | Novocastra | NLC-LAM-A/C | |
4/11/13 | Cappel | 559762 | |
Hoechst 33342 | Sigma fluka | B2261 | |
Rabbit anti Laminin antibody | Sigma | L9393 | |
MATERIALS AND EQUIPMENT | |||
Adsorbable antibacteric suture 4-0 | Ethicon | vcp310h | |
30G needle syringe | BD | 324826 | |
Treadmill | Columbus instrument | ||
Steromicroscope | Nikon | SMZ800 | |
Inverted microscope | Leica | DMIL LED | |
Isoflurane unit | Harvad Apparatus | ||
Fiber optics | Euromecs (Holland) | EK1 | |
Heating pad | Vet Tech | C17A1 | |
Scalpels | Swann-Morton | 11REF050 | |
Surgical forceps | Fine Scientific Tools | 5/45 | |
High temperature cauteriser | Bovie Medical | AA01 | |
MEDIA COMPOSITION | |||
Media composition is detailed below. HIDEMs growth medium:
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Table 1. List of Reagents, Materials, Equipment, and Media.
Patient-derived iPSCs could be an invaluable source of cells for future autologous cell therapy protocols. iPSC-derived myogenic stem/progenitor cells similar to pericyte-derived mesoangioblasts (iPSC-derived mesoangioblast-like stem/progenitor cells: IDEMs) can be established from iPSCs generated from patients affected by different forms of muscular dystrophy. Patient-specific IDEMs can be genetically corrected with different strategies (e.g. lentiviral vectors, human artificial chromosomes) and enhanced in their myogenic differentiation potential upon overexpression of the myogenesis regulator MyoD. This myogenic potential is then assessed in vitro with specific differentiation assays and analyzed by immunofluorescence. The regenerative potential of IDEMs is further evaluated in vivo, upon intramuscular and intra-arterial transplantation in two representative mouse models displaying acute and chronic muscle regeneration. The contribution of IDEMs to the host skeletal muscle is then confirmed by different functional tests in transplanted mice. In particular, the amelioration of the motor capacity of the animals is studied with treadmill tests. Cell engraftment and differentiation are then assessed by a number of histological and immunofluorescence assays on transplanted muscles. Overall, this paper describes the assays and tools currently utilized to evaluate the differentiation capacity of IDEMs, focusing on the transplantation methods and subsequent outcome measures to analyze the efficacy of cell transplantation.
Patient-derived iPSCs could be an invaluable source of cells for future autologous cell therapy protocols. iPSC-derived myogenic stem/progenitor cells similar to pericyte-derived mesoangioblasts (iPSC-derived mesoangioblast-like stem/progenitor cells: IDEMs) can be established from iPSCs generated from patients affected by different forms of muscular dystrophy. Patient-specific IDEMs can be genetically corrected with different strategies (e.g. lentiviral vectors, human artificial chromosomes) and enhanced in their myogenic differentiation potential upon overexpression of the myogenesis regulator MyoD. This myogenic potential is then assessed in vitro with specific differentiation assays and analyzed by immunofluorescence. The regenerative potential of IDEMs is further evaluated in vivo, upon intramuscular and intra-arterial transplantation in two representative mouse models displaying acute and chronic muscle regeneration. The contribution of IDEMs to the host skeletal muscle is then confirmed by different functional tests in transplanted mice. In particular, the amelioration of the motor capacity of the animals is studied with treadmill tests. Cell engraftment and differentiation are then assessed by a number of histological and immunofluorescence assays on transplanted muscles. Overall, this paper describes the assays and tools currently utilized to evaluate the differentiation capacity of IDEMs, focusing on the transplantation methods and subsequent outcome measures to analyze the efficacy of cell transplantation.
Patient-derived iPSCs could be an invaluable source of cells for future autologous cell therapy protocols. iPSC-derived myogenic stem/progenitor cells similar to pericyte-derived mesoangioblasts (iPSC-derived mesoangioblast-like stem/progenitor cells: IDEMs) can be established from iPSCs generated from patients affected by different forms of muscular dystrophy. Patient-specific IDEMs can be genetically corrected with different strategies (e.g. lentiviral vectors, human artificial chromosomes) and enhanced in their myogenic differentiation potential upon overexpression of the myogenesis regulator MyoD. This myogenic potential is then assessed in vitro with specific differentiation assays and analyzed by immunofluorescence. The regenerative potential of IDEMs is further evaluated in vivo, upon intramuscular and intra-arterial transplantation in two representative mouse models displaying acute and chronic muscle regeneration. The contribution of IDEMs to the host skeletal muscle is then confirmed by different functional tests in transplanted mice. In particular, the amelioration of the motor capacity of the animals is studied with treadmill tests. Cell engraftment and differentiation are then assessed by a number of histological and immunofluorescence assays on transplanted muscles. Overall, this paper describes the assays and tools currently utilized to evaluate the differentiation capacity of IDEMs, focusing on the transplantation methods and subsequent outcome measures to analyze the efficacy of cell transplantation.