Lipids are known to play an important role in cellular functions. Here, we describe a method to determine the lipid composition of neutrophils, with emphasis on the cholesterol level, by using both HPTLC and HPLC to gain a better understanding of the underlying mechanisms of neutrophil extracellular trap formation.
Lipid analysis performed by high performance thin layer chromatography (HPTLC) is a relatively simple, cost-effective method of analyzing a broad range of lipids. The function of lipids (e.g., in host-pathogen interactions or host entry) has been reported to play a crucial role in cellular processes. Here, we show a method to determine lipid composition, with a focus on the cholesterol level of primary blood-derived neutrophils, by HPTLC in comparison to high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The aim was to investigate the role of lipid/cholesterol alterations in the formation of neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs). NET release is known as a host defense mechanism to prevent pathogens from spreading within the host. Therefore, blood-derived human neutrophils were treated with methyl-β-cyclodextrin (MβCD) to induce lipid alterations in the cells. Using HPTLC and HPLC, we have shown that MβCD treatment of the cells leads to lipid alterations associated with a significant reduction in the cholesterol content of the cell. At the same time, MβCD treatment of the neutrophils led to the formation of NETs, as shown by immunofluorescence microscopy. In summary, here we present a detailed method to study lipid alterations in neutrophils and the formation of NETs.
Lipids have been shown to play important roles in cell homeostasis, cell death, host-pathogen interactions, and cytokine release1. Over time, interest for and knowledge on the impact of lipids in host-pathogen interactions or inflammation have increased, and several publications confirm the central role of certain lipids, especially the steroid cholesterol, in cellular responses. Pharmacological treatment with statins, which are used as inhibitors of cholesterol biosynthesis by blocking 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-coenzym-A-reductase (HMG-CoA-reductase), can act as anti-inflammatory agents by lowering the serum levels of interleukin 6 and C-reactive protein2. Cholesterol- and glycosphingolipid-enriched structures can be used by several pathogens, such as bacteria and viruses, as a gateway into the host3,4,5,6. Sphingolipids (e.g., sphingomyelin) have been shown to be used by pathogens to promote their pathogenicity7. In macrophages, mycobacteria use cholesterol-enriched domains for entering cells; a depletion of cholesterol inhibits mycobacterial uptake8. Furthermore, infection of macrophages with Francisella tularensis, a zoonotic agent responsible for tularemia (also known as rabbit fever)9, led to an infection that was abolished when cholesterol was depleted from the membranes10. Similarly, the invasion of host cells by Escherichia coli via lipid-rich structures was demonstrated to be cholesterol-dependent4. Moreover, Salmonella typhimurium infection experiments of epithelial cells demonstrated that cholesterol is essential for pathogen entry into the cells11. Cholesterol depletion inhibited the uptake of Salmonella11. Furthermore, a recent study by Gilk et al. demonstrated that cholesterol plays an important role in the uptake of Coxiella burnetti12. Additionally, Tuong et al. found that 25-hydroxycholesterol plays a crucial role in phagocytosis by lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated macrophages13. Phagocytosis was reduced when macrophages were pharmacologically treated to deplete cholesterol14. Thus, cholesterol and other lipids seem to play an important role in infection and inflammation, since their depletion can reduce the risk of invasion from several pathogens10,11,12.
Recently, we were able to show that lipid alterations, especially the depletion of cholesterol from the cell, induce the formation of neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) in human blood-derived neutrophils15. Since the discovery of NETs in 2004, they have been shown to play critical roles in bacterial entrapment, and thus in hindering the spread of infection16,17. NETs consist of a DNA backbone associated with histones, proteases, and antimicrobial peptides16. The release of the NETs by neutrophils can be induced by invading pathogens18,19 and chemical substances such as phorbol-myristate-acetate (PMA) or statins16,20. However, the detailed cellular mechanisms, and especially the role of lipids in this process, are still not entirely clear. The analysis of lipids can lead to a better understanding of the mechanisms involved in a wide variety of cellular processes and interactions, such as the release of NETs. Cholesterol and sphingomyelin are vital constituents of the cell membrane and lipid microdomains, where they add stability and facilitate the clustering of the proteins involved in protein trafficking and signaling events21. To investigate the mechanistic role of certain lipids, amphiphilic pharmacological agents, such as the cyclic oligosaccharide methyl-β-cyclodextrin (MβCD), can be used to alter the lipid composition of a cell and to reduce cholesterol in vitro15. Here, we present a method to use HPTLC to analyze the lipid composition of neutrophils in response to MβCD. HPLC was used to confirm the level of cholesterol in the neutrophil population. Furthermore, we describe a method to visualize the formation of NETs by immunofluorescence microscopy in human blood-derived neutrophils in response to MβCD.
The collection of the peripheral blood in this protocol was approved by the local human research ethics commission. All human subjects provided their written informed consent.
1. Isolation of Human Blood-derived Neutrophils by Density Gradient Centrifugation
2. Lipid Isolation and Analysis of Human Blood-derived Neutrophils
3. Visualization and Quantification of NETs
Human blood-derived neutrophils were isolated by density gradient centrifugation (Figure 2). To investigate the effect of lipid alterations on neutrophils, the cells were treated with 10 mM MβCD, which depletes cholesterol from the cell. Subsequently, the lipids were isolated from the samples by Bligh and Dyer (Figure 1, left panel), as described by Brogden et al.23. The prepared lipid samples were loaded onto silica gel HPTLC plates and run using a three-solution protocol, which has been optimized to separate and visualize a broad range of lipids, including cholesterol, cholesterol esters, sphingomyelin, phospholipids, and triacylglycerides, free fatty acids, monoacylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, cardiolipin, phosphatidylserine, and phosphatidylcholine (Figure 3A). Oxygenated derivatives of cholesterol (oxysterols) are not detectable with this method. An additional quantitative analysis of cholesterol was performed using HPLC (Figure 3B). The regression value for cholesterol was markedly better when using HPLC (Figure 4A) compared to HPTLC (Figure 4B). To visualize the NETs, the cells were stimulated with the above-mentioned stimuli, fixed, and stained for DNA/histone 1 (green), MPO (red), and DNA (blue) as typical NET markers (Figure 5A). As displayed in Figure 5A, a clear occurrence of MPO, DNA/histone 1, and DNA occurs in the NETs when the cells were treated with 10 mM MβCD for 2 h. Subsequently, the effect of cholesterol reduction was microscopically analyzed. Therefore, cells were stained for DNA (blue) and DNA/histone 1 (green), and NET-releasing nuclei were counted using the cell counter plugin from the image processing software ImageJ (Figure 5B). Untreated neutrophils served as a control for spontaneous NET formation (Figure 5B-i). In the displayed figure, the NET release in untreated neutrophils after 2 h of incubation was 3.89%, whereas the treatment of the cells with 10 mM MβCD resulted in 35.17% NET formation (Figure 5B).
Figure 1: Schematic showing the steps involved in determining the lipid composition and extracellular trap release from human blood-derived neutrophils. Neutrophils are isolated using a density gradient and treated with Methyl-β-cyclodextrin (MβCD) to induce lipid alterations and NET formation. Thereafter, lipids are isolated and analyzed by using either HPTLC or HPLC, and NETs are visualized and quantified by immunofluorescence.
Figure 2: Images depicting a typical density gradient used to isolate polymorphonuclear cells from freshly-isolated blood. Four layers are visible post centrifugation: plasma, mononuclear cells, polymorphonuclear cells, and erythrocytes.
Figure 3: HPTLC and HPLC analysis of lipids isolated from neutrophils. (A) Standard used to identify the lipids present in neutrophils via HPTLC (left lane). CE: Cholesterol esters, TG: Triacylglycerides, FFA: Free fatty acids, Chol: Cholesterol, MG: Monoacylglycerol, PE: Phosphatidylethanolamine, CL: Cardiolipin, PS: Phosphatidylserine, PC: Phosphatidylcholine, and SM: Sphingomyelin. (B) Representative result showing a cholesterol-specific peak for 2 mg/mL at 4.980 min using the HPLC protocol described here.
Figure 4: HPLC and HPTLC analyses of cholesterol. Graphs showing the relationship between cholesterol concentration and area, as measured by HPLC (A), and band intensity, as measured by HPTLC (B). The minimum detection limit for HPLC was 0.0016 mg/mL, with a regression value for the standard curve of 0.998 N = 3, SEM (A). Cholesterol ranging from 2 mg/mL down to 0.05 mg/mL can be semi-quantified using HPTLC (B), with a minimum detection limit of 0.05 mg/mL N = 3, SEM. The regression value for the HPTLC standard curve is 0.918.
Figure 5: Representative fluorescence micrographs displaying NET structures and subsequent NET quantification. (A) Neutrophils stimulated with 10 mM MβCD for 2 h were stained for (ii) MPO (red), (iii) DNA/histone 1 (green), and (iv) DNA (blue). (i) Overlay of (ii), (iii), and (iv). (B) The cells were incubated for 2 h with (i) HBSS medium or (ii) 10 mM MβCD, and released NETs were stained for nuclei (blue) and DNA/histone 1 (green). NET-negative nuclei were marked with counter 8 (yellow) and NET-positive nuclei with counter 7 (red).
The methods described here can be used to analyze specific lipids, such as cholesterol, by HPTLC or HPLC and to investigate the effects of pharmacological lipid alterations on the formation of NETs (see Neumann et al.15).
HPTLC is a relatively cost-effective and simple method to analyze a broad range of lipids in a large number of samples. This method has been used in many research areas, including antibiotic quantification25, lipid storage in lysosomal storage diseases26, and the determination of cholesterol and cholesterylglucoside levels in epithelial cells27. The method described here was modified and optimized to isolate lipids from a purified neutrophil population; however, a slightly modified version can also be used to isolate lipids from tissue samples (see Brogden et al.23). Using this method, lipids can also be effectively separated, identified, and semi-quantified against a known standard. A critical step in this method is the usage of the respective named buffer, since the usage of any other buffer or medium may lead to lipid contamination and unspecific lipid bands in the samples. Since sensitivity is limited with HPTLC, HPLC should be used as a more accurate method for absolute quantification.
HPLC facilitates the quantification and identification of cholesterol and its various forms or derivatives by performing a comparison to a known lipid. By using the protocol described above, it is possible to reliably quantify down to 0.0016 mg/mL cholesterol (Figure 4A), with a linear ratio up to 10 mg/mL (R = 0.990). The HPTLC method enables cholesterol detection down to 0.05 mg/mL, but with a sigmoid curve and a lower correlation coefficient of R = 0.906 (Figure 4B). The higher sensitivity and higher correlation coefficient thus makes HPLC a much superior method for the exact quantification of lipids, which subsequently enables smaller differences between the samples to be detected. However, both methods can be used in combination; HPTLC can be used to gain an overview into which lipids may be altered, and HPLC may be used in a more targeted approach to quantify the difference of a specific lipid in a given sample. When comparing our measurements with the values obtained by others28,29, less cholesterol was quantified in total neutrophils. This might be explained by the methodology used. Other studies used a fluorimetric detection, which is based on an enzyme-coupled reaction that detects both free cholesterol and cholesterylesters.
Here, HPTLC and HPLC are used in combination to verify that MβCD leads to a significant reduction of cholesterol as also previously shown by Gorudko et al.28. They demonstrated a 60% reduction of cholesterol in neutrophils by 10 mM MβCD. Additionally, a slight reduction of sphingomyelin level but not cholesterol esters was detectable in the neutrophils when treated with MβCD (see Neumann et al.15). At the same time, the depletion of cholesterol leads to the formation of NETs (see Neumann et al.15). These finding correlate well with the phenomenon that treatment of neutrophils with statins, inhibitors of the 3-hydroxy 3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A (HMG-CoA) reductase, the rate-limiting enzyme in cholesterol biosynthesis, boosts formation of NETs. However, since statin treatment of neutrophils exhibits stronger NET induction compared to MβCD treatment (see Neumann et al.15 and Chow et al.20), additional effects of statins e.g. on prenylated membrane-anchored effector proteins might also be involved in formation of NETs.
The formation of NETs is a relatively novel described host defense mechanism. The extracellular DNA fibers have now been described not only in mammals30,31, but also in chicken, fish, shrimps, and plants32,33,34,35. Upon stimulation of the neutrophils with pathogens or other stimuli, NETs are released into the extracellular space, where they entrap and possibly kill invading pathogens36. Studying the lipid composition of an activated neutrophil may help to understand the cellular mechanisms mediating its antimicrobial activity. Since we measured only the total lipid level of the neutrophils, it remains to be determined how the lipid content differs and is affected by MβCD in whole cell versus plasma membranes and among different membrane micro domains. However, this requires specific membrane separation procedures as previously described (Xu et al.).37
Besides chromatin, human NETs contain several neutrophil proteins, such as MPO; elastase, the antimicrobial peptide LL-37; or calgranulin17,36. Recent research has focused heavily on the role of those specific proteins and morphological changes, which initiate and facilitate the formation of NETs15,38,39. However, so far, there is only limited knowledge about the importance of certain lipids during this process15,20. Therefore, this is a particularly interesting area to be explored in more detail in the future. Finally, knowledge on lipid membrane modifications could serve as a basis for therapeutic approaches to boost the immune system against infections. As an example, it was shown that the depletion of cholesterol might help in fighting antibiotic-resistant pathogens such as H. pylori, since it was demonstrated that cholesterol enhances the resistance of those bugs against antibiotics and antimicrobial peptides40. Similar studies might be helpful for understanding host-pathogen interactions with different bacterial species.
The authors have nothing to disclose.
This work was supported by a fellowship of the Akademie für Tiergesundheit (AfT) and a fellowship from the PhD program, “Animal and Zoonotic Infections,” of the University of Veterinary Medicine, Hannover, Germany, provided to Ariane Neumann.
Neutrophil isolation, NET staining and quantification | |||
Alexa Flour 633 goat anti-rabbit IgG | Invitrogen | A-21070 | |
Anti-MPOα antibody | Dako | A0398 | |
BSA | Sigma-Aldrich | 3912-100G | |
Marienfeld-Neubauer improved counting chamber | Celeromics | MF-0640010 | |
Confocal microscope TCS SP5 AOBS with tandem scanner | Leica | DMI6000CS | |
Dulbecco´s PBS 10X | Sigma-Aldrich | P5493-1L | Dilute 1:10 in water for 1X working solution |
Dy Light 488 conjugated highly cross-absorbed | Thermo Fisher Scientific | 35503 | |
Excel | Microsoft | 2010 | |
DNA/Histone 1 antibody | Millipore | MAB3864 | |
Image J | NIH | 1.8 | http://imagej.nih.gov/ij/ |
Light microscope | VWR | 630-1554 | |
Methyl-β-cyclodextrin | Sigma-Aldrich | C4555-1G | |
PFA | Carl Roth | 0335.3 | dissolve in water, heat up to 65 °C and add 1N NaOH to clear solution |
PMA | Sigma-Aldrich | P8139-1MG | Stock 16 µM, dissolved in 1X PBS |
Poly-L-lysine | Sigma-Aldrich | P4707 | |
Polymorphprep | AXIS-SHIELD | AN1114683 | |
ProLong Gold antifade reagent with DAPI | Invitrogen | P7481 | |
Quant-iT PicoGreen dsDNA Reagent | Invitrogen | P7581 | |
RPMI1640 | PAA | E 15-848 | |
HBSS with CaCl and Mg | Sigma | H6648 | |
Triton X-100 | Sigma-Aldrich | T8787-50ml | |
Trypanblue | Invitrogen | 15250-061 | 0.4% solution |
Water | Carl Roth | 3255.1 | endotoxin-free |
Name | Company | Catalog Number | Yorumlar |
Lipid isolation and analysis | |||
1-propanol | Sigma-Aldrich | 33538 | |
10 µl syringe | Hamilton | 701 NR 10 µl | |
Diethyl ether | Sigma-Aldrich | 346136 | |
Ethyl acetate | Carl Roth | 7336.2 | |
Canullla 26G | Braun | 4657683 | |
Copper(II)sulphatepentahydrate | Merck | 1027805000 | |
Chloroform | Carl Roth | 7331.1 | |
CP ATLAS software | Lazarsoftware | 2.0 | |
Chromolith HighResolution RP-18 endcapped 100-4.6 mm column | Merck | 152022 | |
High Performance Liquid Chromatograph Chromaster | Hitachi | HITA 892-0080-30Y | Paramaters are dependent on individual HPLC machine |
HPLC UV Detector | Hitachi | 5410 | |
HPLC Column Oven | Hitachi | 5310 | |
HPLC Auto Sampler | Hitachi | 5260 | |
HPLC Pump | Hitachi | 5160 | |
Methanol | Carl Roth | 7342.1 | |
n-Hexane | Carl Roth | 7339.1 | |
Phosphoric acid | Sigma-Aldrich | 30417 | |
Potassium chloride | Merck | 49,361,000 | |
Potters | LAT Garbsen | 5 ml | |
SDS | Carl Roth | CN30.3 | |
HPTLC silica gel 60 | Merck | 105553 | |
Vacufuge plus basic device | Eppendorf | 22820001 | |
Corning Costar cell culture 48-well plate, flat bottom | Sigma | CLS3548 | |
Coverslip | Thermo Fisher Scientific | 1198882 | |
Glass slide | Carl Roth | 1879 | |
BD Tuberculin Syringe Only 1 ml | BD Bioscience | 309659 |