单哺乳动物细胞封装技术研究进展

细胞封装技术是指将细胞包裹在半透膜或者水凝胶组成的封装层内,该封装层能够有效阻挡外界大尺寸物质与封装细胞的直接接触,从而避免免疫细胞、抗体、酶等物质的攻击;同时保证氧气、营养物质、代谢物等一些小尺寸物质的自由交换,从而维持细胞各项生物学活动和正常功能.细胞封装技术在生物材料、生物医学以及生命科学等领域具有重要应用前景.单细胞封装技术,即将单个活细胞包裹在半透性的封装层内,是细胞封装向高封装效率、低封装层尺寸、高稳定性封装发展的必然趋势.单细胞封装系统在提高氧气、营养物质、代谢物等交换效率,维持细胞活性和各项生物学功能,以及单细胞水平上的细胞生物组学研究等方面具有显著优势.本文就基于哺乳动物细胞的单细胞封装技术进行了系统阐述,重点介绍了单细胞微胶囊封装系统和单细胞纳米封装系统两大单细胞封装制备技术的研究进展,对单细胞封装系统在细胞治疗、组织工程与再生医学、单细胞生物学分析以及全细胞传感器领域的应用现状进行了分析和归纳.最后,对单细胞封装技术所面临的问题和发展前景进行了总结和展望.     

组织单腺体内单细胞的基因变异分析方法

从单细胞尺度进行细胞异质性的分析是深度理解细胞群体关系的关键。组织中的单细胞由于细胞类型不同,尺寸往往相差很大,但是目前常用的基于微孔板和Fluidigm公司的微流控的单细胞组学研究方法,需要入口的单细胞大小相近。本研究以胃组织为例,建立了一种组织单细胞的基因变异分析方法,实现了尺寸差异较大的单细胞的基因变异分析。在该方法中,先将胃组织裂解获得单个腺体,再将单个腺体酶解得到不同大小的腺体内单细胞,然后把这些单细胞铺在聚乙烯萘膜载玻片上,进行激光显微切割分选、全基因组放大,最后测其微卫星的长度。利用该方法,成功在肠上皮化生腺体内部检测到微卫星长度的变化,并灵活地对尺寸差异大的组织细胞以及肠化生腺体细胞进行了精细分析。此外,这种单细胞分析方法还可以对带有不同标记的细胞进行低通量和高通量的基因组分析,为单细胞尺度上的组织异质性研究提供了一种高度灵活的分析方法。     

单细胞光学操纵方法研究进展

随着单细胞测序技术的发展,人们对细胞异质性的关注越来越密切.单细胞操纵是研究细胞异质性的前提.基于光与物质的相互作用可以实现细胞的光学操纵,本文主要综述了激光显微切割、光镊、激光诱导前向转移和光流体等光学操纵方法的原理与应用.光学操纵无需接触,对细胞污染小、损伤小,而且易于和其他技术集成,对单细胞操纵和分析具有重要意义.     

质谱流式技术用于单细胞检测

质谱流式技术(mass cytometry)是利用质谱原理对单细胞进行多参数检测的流式技术,能够在单细胞水平实现超过50种标志物的同时测量,显著增强了对细胞生长进程和复杂细胞系统的评估能力。该文简要介绍了质谱流式技术的基本工作原理,并从金属元素标记、质量分析器、高维单细胞数据处理等方面展开论述,阐明设计新型金属元素标签和选择飞行时间质谱的必要性,归纳分析高维单细胞数据的算法并总结各种算法的优点和局限性。     

单细胞转录组分析研究进展

目前常规的转录组分析方法无法揭示单个细胞之间基因表达的异质性,也难以对极少量细胞进行分析,单细胞转录组分析技术为此提供了有效的研究工具。对单细胞转录组分析技术的历史、发展、策略、方法和应用进行综述。     

单细胞技术在干细胞研究中的应用

干细胞是具有自我更新和分化潜能的异质性细胞群体。基于细胞群体水平的干细胞研究不能满足深入认识干细胞生物学本质及实际应用的需要。近年来,单细胞相关技术不断发展和成熟,并正在干细胞基础研究及其相关领域中获得迅速应用。该文以造血干细胞为主要例举,就实验研究中常用的单细胞分离、单细胞克隆分析、单细胞移植、单细胞实时定量PCR及单细胞测序等技术原理及其应用进行综述。     

单细胞多组学技术新进展及其在发育生物学研究中的应用

单细胞多组学技术基于单细胞测序技术和高通量组学方法发展而来,能在单细胞分辨率下同时整合转录组、基因组、表观遗传组、蛋白质组或空间状态等两种或多种组学信息.相比单细胞单组学技术,单细胞多组学技术能多层次、多角度地描绘细胞间的异质性,挖掘各层组学之间的直接和潜在联系,从而更加全面和系统地描绘细胞的状态和命运,在生命科学和医学多领域有广泛的应用前景.本文总结了现有的单细胞多组学技术,预测了其发展趋势,讨论了其在发育生物学中的应用实例和潜力.     

单细胞全基因组扩增技术与应用

同一组织中的细胞往往具有类似的结构和功能,然而通过对单个细胞进行测序分析后,发现每个细胞都具有一定异质性.单细胞全基因组扩增技术是进行单细胞测序的前提,该技术可用于揭示单细胞基因组结构差异,同时在肿瘤研究、发育生物学、微生物学等研究中发挥重要作用,并成为生命科学研究技术的热点之一.单细胞全基因组扩增技术的难点在于单细胞的分离和全基因组的扩增.本文介绍了单细胞全基因组扩增技术中常用的单细胞分离技术和单细胞全基因组扩增技术,并对各技术间的优缺点进行比较,同时着重讨论该技术在肿瘤研究、发育生物学和微生物学研究中的应用.     

基于电感耦合等离子体质谱的蛋白质定量技术研究进展

综述了ICP-MS法应用于蛋白质定量技术方面的研究进展.蛋白质定量研究已成为蛋白质组学研究领域的热点,它是解析生物体蛋白质功能的重要途径.基于同位素标记和生物质谱分析技术是蛋白质定量最常用的方法之一,近年来,随着质谱技术的发展,电感耦合等离子体质谱(ICP-MS)技术成为元素测量的重要手段,这使其在蛋白质定量中具一定的应用前景.     

单细胞转录组技术及其在人类细胞图谱构建中的应用

单细胞转录组技术在单细胞水平上进行转录组测序,提供了单个细胞的基因表达差异信息,使在单细胞尺度下研究个体细胞、相关环境细胞及其相互作用的机理成为可能.近年来,单细胞转录组技术在c DNA扩增原理上经历了从末端加尾、体外逆转录到模板置换的方法发展,大大提高了基因检测的数量、基因表达的准确性等.同时,在单细胞选取方式上进行了从96/384孔板到油包水液滴以及纳米微孔的创新,在提高通量和重复性的同时降低了整体实验成本.单细胞转录组技术广泛应用于细胞群体分类和异质性研究,推动了从发育生物学到正常、病态组织细胞图谱的构建.本文对单细胞转录组技术近年的技术进展以及在人类细胞图谱构建中的应用进行了综述.     

外用红色诺卡氏菌细胞壁骨架效力测试实验方法的研究

摸索改进外用红色诺卡氏菌（Nocardia rubra）细胞壁骨架的两种效力测试方法,即流式细胞术-荧光微球法、流式细胞术-免疫双标法（荧光微球+荧光抗体）,并与国家食品药品监督管理局原审批方法进行比较,经过统计学评估,评价两种方法的可行性。通过抽取小鼠免疫后获得的腹腔液注入到流式细胞仪,在发射光的荧光通路中,检测巨噬细胞的荧光强度,测定未吞噬荧光微球的巨噬细胞和吞噬荧光微球的巨噬细胞的比例,全部数据经统计学分析,按公式计算吞噬率及吞噬指数完成流式细胞术检测过程。分别采用荧光微球以及荧光微球+荧光抗体两种方式上机检测巨噬细胞吞噬结果。测得的结果与原检验方法——人工显微镜观察法的结果进行比较,确定评估方法的有效性和准确性。结果表明,显微镜人工计数法与流式细胞术-免疫双标法（荧光微球+荧光抗体）的3次实验结果与正常对照组比较,吞噬率明显升高（P<0.01）,吞噬指数明显增大（P<0.01）,有显著性差异,判定结果为阳性;3次流式细胞术-荧光微球法实验,结果不稳定。流式细胞术-免疫双标法（荧光微球+荧光抗体）由于加入了成熟小鼠巨噬细胞表面特异性标志物抗体F480荧光抗体,可有效标记小鼠巨噬细胞,加强了流式细胞仪收集巨噬细胞的准确性,两者结合应用更能准确反映供试品对小鼠巨噬细胞吞噬功能的作用。利用此方法检测外用红色诺卡氏菌细胞壁骨架增强免疫力的结果和药品原检验方法的统计学结果一致。该方法获取的巨噬细胞数量远多于原方法,加入的荧光微球及荧光抗体,能更准确反应供试品对小鼠巨噬细胞的吞噬作用。该方法灵敏性高、稳定性好,并且易操作,可作为原实验方法的改良参考。     

Using zeta-potential measurements to quantify peptide partition to lipid membranes

Many cellular phenomena occur on the biomembranes. There are plenty of molecules (natural or xenobiotics) that interact directly or partially with the cell membrane. Biomolecules, such as several peptides (e.g., antimicrobial peptides) and proteins, exert their effects at the cell membrane level. This feature makes necessary investigating their interactions with lipids to clarify their mechanisms of action and side effects necessary. The determination of molecular lipid/water partition constants (K _p ) is frequently used to quantify the extension of the interaction. The determination of this parameter has been achieved by using different methodologies, such as UV-Vis absorption spectrophotometry, fluorescence spectroscopy and ζ-potential measurements. In this work, we derived and tested a mathematical model to determine the K _p from ζ-potential data. The values obtained with this method were compared with those obtained by fluorescence spectroscopy, which is a regular technique used to quantify the interaction of intrinsically fluorescent peptides with selected biomembrane model systems. Two antimicrobial peptides (BP100 and pepR) were evaluated by this new method. The results obtained by this new methodology show that ζ-potential is a powerful technique to quantify peptide/lipid interactions of a wide variety of charged molecules, overcoming some of the limitations inherent to other techniques, such as the need for fluorescent labeling.     

Flow cytometry and FACS applied to filamentous fungi

Flow cytometry is an automated, laser- or impedance-based, high throughput method that allows very rapid analysis of multiple chemical and physical characteristics of single cells within a cell population. It is an extremely powerful technology that has been used for over four decades with filamentous fungi. Although single cells within a cell population are normally analysed rapidly on a cell-by-cell basis using the technique, flow cytometry can also be used to analyse cell (e.g. spore) aggregates or entire microcolonies. Living or fixed cells can be stained with a wide range of fluorescent reporters to label different cell components or measure different physiological processes. Flow cytometry is also suited for measurements of cell size, interaction, aggregation or shape using non-labelled cells by means of analysing their light scattering characteristics. Fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) is a specialized form of flow cytometry that provides a method for sorting a heterogeneous mixture of cells into two or more containers based upon the fluorescence and/or light scattering properties of each cell. The major advantage of analysing cells by flow cytometry over microscopy is the speed of analysis: thousands of cells can be analysed per second or sorted in minutes. Drawbacks of flow cytometry are that specific cells cannot be followed in time and normally spatial information relating to individual cells is lacking. A big advantage over microscopy is when using FACS, cells with desired characteristics can be sorted for downstream experimentation (e.g. for growth, infection, enzyme production, gene expression assays or ‘omics’ approaches). In this review, we explain the basic concepts of flow cytometry and FACS, define its advantages and disadvantages in comparison with microscopy, and describe the wide range of applications in which these powerful technologies have been used with filamentous fungi.     

灰葡萄孢菌过氧化物酶体及细胞核的荧光蛋白标记

【目的】对灰葡萄孢菌(Botrytis cinerea)的细胞核和过氧化物酶体进行荧光蛋白标记,为研究其生长发育和侵染过程中细胞结构和细胞器动态提供基础。【方法】以绿色荧光蛋白(GFP)和红色荧光蛋白(DsRED、mCherry)为报告基因,利用根癌农杆菌介导转化(Agrobacterium tumefaciens mediated transformation,AtMT)将3种荧光蛋白标记载体分别导入灰葡萄孢菌标准菌株B05.10;通过PCR检测及荧光观察筛选和验证转化子,并进行单孢纯化;利用共聚焦显微镜记录细胞器荧光定位情况。【结果】获得了过氧化物酶体或细胞核稳定表达红、绿色荧光的重组单孢菌株,PCR验证表明标记基因成功整合入转化子基因组。在标记细胞核的菌株中,菌丝和孢子中可见多个明亮、圆形的荧光点,与DAPI染色共定位。标记过氧化物酶体的菌株中,菌丝和孢子中可见小点状绿色或红色荧光,在脂类物质诱导下荧光点数量明显增加,符合过氧化物酶体分布及动态特征。细胞壁染色结果显示,细胞壁染色产生的蓝色荧光与红、绿荧光蛋白的荧光互不干扰,标记效果良好。【结论】获得了理想的过氧化物酶体或细胞核荧光标记的灰葡萄孢菌菌株,为研究其细胞器动态以及生长发育与致病分子机制提供了参考和材料。     

Single-cell flux measurement by continuous fluorescence microphotolysis

Continuous fluorescence microphotolysis (CFM) was adapted to flux measurements in single cells. The principle of the method is simple: Cells are equilibrated with a fluorescent solute, an individual cell is continuously irradiated by a laser beam focussed down to approximately the diameter of the cell, and fluorescence originating from the irradiated cell is monitored. In this procedure irradiation irreversibly photolyzes chromophores in the cell while fresh chromophores enter the cell by membrane transport (flux). The resulting fluorescence decay can be analyzed for the rate constants of both membrane transport and photolysis. As an experimental test of the new method the band-3 mediated transport of the fluorescent anion N-(7-nitrobenzofuranzan-4-yl)-taurine (NBD-taurine) across the erythrocyte membrane was measured. For various experimental conditions good agreement between values obtained by CFM and by fluorescence microphotolysis (FM) was observed. By measurements on single ghosts it was furthermore found that photolysis of NBD-taurine is first-order with respect to the power of irradiation. On this basis a stepped-intensity procedure was worked out that facilitates data evaluation in flux measurements. Also, by analysing the relations between CFM and FM flux measurements a method was devised by which FM data can be corrected for (inevitable) photolysis.     

Development of a full‐length human protein production pipeline

There are many proteomic applications that require large collections of purified protein, but parallel production of large numbers of different proteins remains a very challenging task. To help meet the needs of the scientific community, we have developed a human protein production pipeline. Using high‐throughput (HT) methods, we transferred the genes of 31 full‐length proteins into three expression vectors, and expressed the collection as N‐terminal HaloTag fusion proteins in Escherichia coli and two commercial cell‐free (CF) systems, wheat germ extract (WGE) and HeLa cell extract (HCE). Expression was assessed by labeling the fusion proteins specifically and covalently with a fluorescent HaloTag ligand and detecting its fluorescence on a LabChip^® GX microfluidic capillary gel electrophoresis instrument. This automated, HT assay provided both qualitative and quantitative assessment of recombinant protein. E. coli was only capable of expressing 20% of the test collection in the supernatant fraction with ≥20 μg yields, whereas CF systems had ≥83% success rates. We purified expressed proteins using an automated HaloTag purification method. We purified 20, 33, and 42% of the test collection from E. coli, WGE, and HCE, respectively, with yields ≥1 μg and ≥90% purity. Based on these observations, we have developed a triage strategy for producing full‐length human proteins in these three expression systems.     

SuperSegger: robust image segmentation,analysis and lineage tracking of bacterial cells

Many quantitative cell biology questions require fast yet reliable automated image segmentation to identify and link cells from frame‐to‐frame, and characterize the cell morphology and fluorescence. We present SuperSegger, an automated MATLAB‐based image processing package well‐suited to quantitative analysis of high‐throughput live‐cell fluorescence microscopy of bacterial cells. SuperSegger incorporates machine‐learning algorithms to optimize cellular boundaries and automated error resolution to reliably link cells from frame‐to‐frame. Unlike existing packages, it can reliably segment microcolonies with many cells, facilitating the analysis of cell‐cycle dynamics in bacteria as well as cell‐contact mediated phenomena. This package has a range of built‐in capabilities for characterizing bacterial cells, including the identification of cell division events, mother, daughter and neighbouring cells, and computing statistics on cellular fluorescence, the location and intensity of fluorescent foci. SuperSegger provides a variety of postprocessing data visualization tools for single cell and population level analysis, such as histograms, kymographs, frame mosaics, movies and consensus images. Finally, we demonstrate the power of the package by analyzing lag phase growth with single cell resolution.     

Induction of an osteocyte-like phenotype by fibroblast growth factor-2

Cycloheximide (CHX) is one of the most interesting protein synthesis inhibitors. For this reason, fluorescent derivatives of CHX could find useful applications in cell biology. We report the successful synthesis of a set of novel fluorescent derivatives of CHX. The effect of different functional groups on the biological activity of CHX was studied upon their modification through suitable strategies, i.e., acetylation of the hydroxyl group and reductive amination of the ketone group. The first route induced a complete loss of biological activity, while the second approach allowed a retained inhibition of protein synthesis, as demonstrated by in vitro translation assays. Various fluorescent dyes for reductive amination were tested (i.e., ANTS, APTS, and Rhodamine-123), and the success of the syntheses was demonstrated by diverse analytical techniques. Cycloheximide labeling with fluorescent dyes is a promising approach for developing fluorescence reporters for various applications, both in vitro (fluorescence spectroscopy) and in vivo (live imaging).     

TdTomato and EGFP identification in histological sections: insight and alternatives

Abstract

Tandem dimer Tomato (tdTomato) provides a useful alternative to enhanced green fluorescent protein (eGFP) for performing simultaneous detection of fluorescent protein in histological sections together with fluorescence immunohistochemistry (IHC). eGFP has many properties that make it useful for cell labeling; however, during simultaneous fluorescence IHC, the usefulness of eGFP may be limited. This limitation results from a fixation step required to identify eGFP in histological tissue sections that can mask antibody epitopes and adversely affect staining intensity. An alternative fluorescent protein, tdTomato, may assist concurrent detection of fluorescent protein within tissue sections and fluorescence IHC, because detection of tdTomato does not require tissue fixation. Tissue sections were obtained from various organs of mice ubiquitously expressing eGFP or tdTomato that were either unfixed or fixed with 4% paraformaldehyde. These tissues later were combined with fluorescence IHC. Both eGFP and tdTomato displayed robust signals in fixed frozen sections. Only tdTomato fluorescence, however, was detected in unfixed frozen sections. Simultaneous detection of fluorescence IHC and fluorescent protein in histological sections was observed only in unfixed frozen tdTomato tissue. For this reason, tdTomato is a useful substitute for eGFP for cell labeling when simultaneous fluorescence IHC is required.     

FluoroNanogold is a bifunctional immunoprobe for correlative fluorescence and electron microscopy.

We applied a fluorescent ultrasmall immunogold probe, FluoroNanogold (FNG), to immunocytochemistry on ultrathin cryosections. FNG has the properties of both a fluorescent dye-conjugated antibody for fluorescence microscopy and a gold particle-conjugated antibody for electron microscopy. Therefore, this bifunctional immunoprobe permits correlative microscopic observation of the same cell profiles labeled in a single labeling procedure by these two imaging methods. We demonstrate the utility of FNG as a secondary antibody for immunocytochemical labeling of myeloperoxidase (a marker protein for azurophilic granules) in ultrathin cryosectioned human neutrophils. Its detection requires high spatial resolution because neutrophils contain many cytoplasmic granules. There was a one-to-one relationship between fluorescent structures labeled with FNG and organelle profiles labeled with the same silver-enhanced FNG in ultrathin cryosections. Use of FNG immunocytochemistry on ultrathin cryosections is an ideal methodology for high-resolution correlative fluorescence and electron microscopy and can provide unique information that may be difficult to obtain with a single imaging regimen.