Isolation of Adult Human Astrocyte Populations from Fresh-frozen Cortex using Fluorescence-Activated Nuclei Sorting

J Vis Exp. 2021 Apr 16:(170):10.3791/62405. doi: 10.3791/62405.

Abstract

The complexity of human astrocytes remains poorly defined in primary human tissue, requiring better tools for their isolation and molecular characterization. Fluorescence-activated nuclei sorting (FANS) can be used to successfully isolate and study human neuronal nuclei (NeuN+) populations from frozen archival tissue, thereby avoiding problems associated with handling fresh tissue. However, efforts to similarly isolate astroglia from the non-neuronal (NeuN-) element are lacking. A recently developed and validated immunotagging strategy uses three transcription factor antibodies to simultaneously isolate enriched neuronal (NeuN+), astrocyte (paired box protein 6 (PAX6)+NeuN-), and oligodendrocyte progenitor (OLIG2+NeuN-) nuclei populations from non-diseased, fresh (unfixed) snap-frozen postmortem human temporal neocortex tissue. This technique was shown to be useful for the characterization of cell type-specific transcriptome alterations in primary pathological epilepsy neocortex. Transcriptomic analyses confirmed that PAX6+NeuN- sorted populations are robustly enriched for pan-astrocyte markers and capture astrocytes in both resting and reactive conditions. This paper describes the FANS methodology for the isolation of astrocyte-enriched nuclei populations from fresh-frozen human cortex, including tissue dissociation into single-nucleus (sn) suspension; immunotagging of nuclei with anti-NeuN and anti-PAX6 fluorescently conjugated antibodies; FANS gating strategies and quality control metrics for optimizing sensitivity and specificity during sorting and for confirming astrocyte enrichment; and recommended procurement for downstream transcriptome and chromatin accessibility sequencing at bulk or sn resolution. This protocol is applicable for non-necrotic, fresh-frozen, human cortical specimens with various pathologies and recommended postmortem tissue collection within 24 h.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Video-Audio Media

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Antigens, Nuclear
  • Astrocytes*
  • Cell Nucleus*
  • Cerebral Cortex / cytology*
  • Cytological Techniques*
  • Fluorescence
  • Freezing
  • Gene Expression Profiling
  • Humans
  • Nerve Tissue Proteins
  • PAX6 Transcription Factor

Substances

  • Antigens, Nuclear
  • Nerve Tissue Proteins
  • PAX6 Transcription Factor
  • PAX6 protein, human
  • neuronal nuclear antigen NeuN, human