Isolation of plasma membranes from rat C6 glioma cells cultivated on microcarriers

A Droplet Microfluidics Based Platform for Mining Metagenomic Libraries for Natural Compounds

Historically, microbes from the environment have been a reliable source for novel bio-active compounds. Cloning and expression of metagenomic DNA in heterologous strains of bacteria has broadened the range of potential compounds accessible. However, such metagenomic libraries have been under-exploited for applications in mammalian cells because of a lack of integrated methods. We present an innovative platform to systematically mine natural resources for pro-apoptotic compounds that relies on the combination of bacterial delivery and droplet microfluidics. Using the violacein operon from C. violaceum as a model, we demonstrate that E. coli modified to be invasive can serve as an efficient delivery vehicle of natural compounds. This approach permits the seamless screening of metagenomic libraries with mammalian cell assays and alleviates the need for laborious extraction of natural compounds. In addition, we leverage the unique properties of droplet microfluidics to amplify bacterial clones and perform clonal screening at high-throughput in place of one-compound-per-well assays in multi-well format. We also use droplet microfluidics to establish a cell aggregate strategy that overcomes the issue of background apoptosis. Altogether, this work forms the foundation of a versatile platform to efficiently mine the metagenome for compounds with therapeutic potential.

RCCS enhances EOE cell proliferation and their differentiation into ameloblasts

In this article we report on the culturing of dental enamel organ epithelia (EOE) using a rotary cell culture system (RCCS) bioreactor associated with a cytodex-3 microcarrier. This culture system enhanced the proliferation and differentiation of the EOE into ameloblasts. Primary dental EOE trypsinized from 4-day old post-natal rat pups were cultured in the RCCS associated with Cytodex-3. The results were analyzed in comparison to a conventional plate system (control). Cells grown in RCCS have shown higher viabilities (above 90%) and final cell densities in terms of cells/ml than in the control system. In the case of RCCS, 46±2 manifold increases were obtained, while significantly lower yields of 10.8±2.5 manifod were obtained for control plates. Throughout the experiments, glucose levels were maintained within the accepted physiological range. In this case, LDH levels are kept low (below 150 mmol/ml), which is in accordance with the low cell death observed in the RCCS. Scanning electron microscopy revealed cells that were spread and forming three dimensional aggregates on the surface of cytodex-3. Cells cultured in the RCCS exhibited a stronger positive immunofluorescence staining for ameloblastin than those in control plates. RT-PCR results revealed that cells cultured in RCCS have higher amelogenin mRNA levels compared to controls. We have done an exploratory study on biological characteristics and self-assembling of epithelium cellula intersitialis, which demonstrated that the special 3D environment enhanced the rat dental EOE cell proliferation and differentiation into ameloblasts. The study has revealed that RCCS could be used to study the reaction of the EOE cells, tooth enamel organ cells and mesenchymal cells under the spacial 3D culture system, which will also provide a novel hypothesis for dental regeneration.

Internalization of metabotropic glutamate receptor in C6 cells through clathrin-coated vesicles

C6 glioma cells were treated for hours with 100 microM L-glutamate, quisqualate or trans-ACPD. In all cases, phospholipase C-coupled metabotropic glutamate receptors (mGluRs) present in these cells are down-regulated after this agonist treatment. Cell surface metabotropic glutamate receptor density was minimum at 6 h of agonist treatment and reached near control values after 30 h of treatment. This recovery was associated with a progressive increase in mGluR1 and mGluR1a mRNA level between 6 and 24 h and was not due to agonist removal. Specific L-[3H]glutamate or [3H](+/-)trans-ACPD binding decrease detected in C6 cells after 6 h of 100 microM L-glutamate treatment was associated with a remarkable increase of specific L-[3H]glutamate binding detected in clathrin-coated vesicles isolated from these treated cells. Moreover, this decrease was blocked in the presence of 0.5 M sucrose or 1 microM phenylarsine oxide, suggesting that desensitization and down-regulation of mGluR can be due to an endocytosis process through clathrin-coated pits and vesicles.