Originally published as JHC exPRESS on June 23, 2008. doi:10.1369/jhc.2008.951228
Volume 56 (10): 881-892, 2008 Copyright ©The Histochemical Society, Inc. Myotube Formation on Micro-patterned Glass: Intracellular Organization and Protein Distribution in C2C12 Skeletal Muscle Cells
Department of Physiology (DLY,RIC,TB) and Department of Cell Biology (YL,RK), Arrhenius Laboratories, The Wenner-Gren Institute, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden, and Ångströmslaboratoriet, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden (GS,KH) Correspondence to: Tore Bengtsson, Department of Physiology, Arrhenius Laboratories E5, The Wenner-Gren Institute, Stockholm University, S-106 91 Stockholm, Sweden. E-mail: tore.bengtsson{at}zoofys.su.se. Co-corresponding author: Roger Karlsson. E-mail: roger.karlsson{at}cellbio.su.se
Proliferation and fusion of myoblasts are needed for the generation and repair of multinucleated skeletal muscle fibers in vivo. Studies of myocyte differentiation, cell fusion, and muscle repair are limited by an appropriate in vitro muscle cell culture system. We developed a novel cell culture technique [two-dimensional muscle syncytia (2DMS) technique] that results in formation of myotubes, organized in parallel much like the arrangement in muscle tissue. This technique is based on UV lithography–produced micro-patterned glass on which conventionally cultured C2C12 myoblasts proliferate, align, and fuse to neatly arranged contractile myotubes in parallel arrays. Combining this technique with fluorescent microscopy, we observed alignment of actin filament bundles and a perinuclear distribution of glucose transporter 4 after myotube formation. Newly formed myotubes contained adjacently located MyoD-positive and MyoD-negative nuclei, suggesting fusion of MyoD-positive and MyoD-negative cells. In comparison, the closely related myogenic factor Myf5 did not exhibit this pattern of distribution. Furthermore, cytoplasmic patches of MyoD colocalized with bundles of filamentous actin near myotube nuclei. At later stages of differentiation, all nuclei in the myotubes were MyoD negative. The 2DMS system is thus a useful tool for studies on muscle alignment, differentiation, fusion, and subcellular protein localization. (J Histochem Cytochem 56:881–892, 2008)
Key Words: skeletal muscle in vitro culturing MyoD glucose transporter 4 F-actin myogenesis cell fusion differentiation
THE SKELETAL MUSCLE is composed of myotubes, which are highly specialized syncytia evolved to generate directed force by contraction. During muscle differentiation, myogenic cells fuse to form multi-nucleated myotubes and myofibers, which extend in parallel through the length of the muscle. Contractile myotubes can also form during in vitro culturing of muscle progenitor cells. However, under those conditions, the formed myotubes are randomly arranged, severely interfering with studies of differentiation, subcellular organization, and behavior of individual muscle cells. Particularly, this fact makes it difficult to determine the spatiotemporal distribution of critical components during muscle development. Such studies have been aimed for by using muscle biopsies or preparation of tissue samples but are hampered by the requirement of transgenic animals and does only allow for studies of fixed materials. Therefore, an in vitro system based on established myogenic cell lines where myotube formation takes the pattern of muscle tissue in vivo is highly sought.
It is known that cells in culture orient themselves in accordance with the topography of the substratum, and several systems have been developed to spatially organize cells of different types. Most previous studies have been based on selective cell attachment to surface bound components (Brunette et al. 1983
Formation of contractile myotubes from myoblasts involves a plethora of molecular processes engaging components of the plasma membrane, the cytoplasm, and the nucleus. One example is the force-generating actin filament system, which is essential for motility and maintenance of cell polarity and undergoes extensive rearrangement on myotube formation. The successive reorganization of the actomyosin system and the shift in expression of the components of this contractile machinery from non-muscle to muscle isoforms exemplifies important and not fully understood processes during muscle development (Lloyd et al. 2004
The glucose transporters GLUT1 and GLUT4 are important for dynamic energy regulation in skeletal muscle cells; this glucose transport system is preferentially based on GLUT1 in myoblasts and GLUT4 in myotubes (Guillet-Deniau et al. 1994
Another typical feature during muscle differentiation is the variation in expression of myogenic factors. The transcription factors MyoD and Myf5 have been reported to be regulated by components of the cell cycle (Lindon et al. 1998 The central importance of force generation, energy regulation, and control of gene expression for muscle development led us to use fluorescence microscopy to characterize the distribution of filamentous actin, cell nuclei, GLUT1, GLUT4, Myf5, and MyoD during myotube formation. We observed extensive formation of myotubes arranged in parallel in the micro-patterned glass, which enabled us to distinguish individual myotubes and hence determine the subcellular distribution of these proteins and their nuclei during early stages of muscle differentiation. We propose that this system can be used for further analysis of intracellular localization and transport of a multitude of proteins during myogenic differentiation. It is expected to become a fruitful complement to sample preparation of fixed and sectioned material obtained from biopsies or tissue.
Cell Culture C2C12 murine skeletal muscle myoblasts (Jasmer and Kwak 2006 24 hr after the cells had reached confluence by adding low-serum containing medium (DMEM; 1 g glucose/liter), supplemented with 2% horse serum, 1% PEST, and 1% glutamine. All cell culture media were from HyClone (Logan, UT), and supplements were from Invitrogen Life Technologies (Carlsbad, CA).
Micro-patterned Coverslips
Microscopy Phase contrast microscopy was performed with an Olympus microscope (IMT-2), equipped with a digital camera (C-4040ZOOM; Olympus Sverige AB, Solna, Sweden). For immunofluorescence microscopy, the cells were washed with PBS and fixed in 4% formaldehyde in PBS at 37C, followed by permeabilization with 0.1% Triton-X100 in PBS for 10 min at room temperature. After washing, the specimens were incubated with primary antibodies for 12 hr at 4C. GLUT1 (Ab-652; Abcam, Cambridge, UK) and GLUT4 antibodies (sc-1606; Santa Cruz Biotechnology, Santa Cruz, CA) were used at 1:200 dilution, Myf5 antibodies (Sc-302; Santa Cruz Biotechnology) were diluted 1:100, and MyoD antibodies (sc-304; Santa Cruz Biotechnology) were diluted 1:50. The primary antibodies were detected by incubating the cell with Texas-red–conjugated anti-goat secondary antibodies (1:200 dilution; sc-2783, Santa Cruz Biotechnology) for 40 min at room temperature or tetramethyl rhodamine isothiocyanate-conjugated anti-rabbit secondary antibodies (1:200 dilution; 711-025-152, Jackson Immuno Research, West Grove, PA). Filamentous actin (F-actin) was stained with FITC-conjugated phalloidin (Sigma-Aldrich; St. Louis, MO), and for labeling of the nuclei, 4'-6-diamidino-2-phenylindol (DAPI) was used. In both cases, the labeling was performed at room temperature for 20 min. The specimens were observed with a Leica DMLB epifluorescence microscope, equipped with a DC350F camera and using IM500 software (Leica Microsystems AB; Kista, Sweden). Specificity of all primary antibodies was established by Western blotting against an extract of C2C12 cells.
Electrical Stimulation of Myotubes
Muscle Cells on Micro-patterned Glass Borosilicate glass coverslips were micro-patterned using UV lithography (see Materials and Methods), yielding 6.7-µm-deep channels with widths ranging from 5 to 120 µm (Figure 1A). C2C12 muscle cells were cultured on these glass surfaces and observed by phase-contrast microscopy. Cell proliferation on these surfaces was similar to proliferation on conventional culture plastics (data not shown). With channels of the optimal width of 20 µm, the cells become neatly arranged in parallel arrays (Figure 1B), leading to extensive fusion of the myoblasts into myotubes in a muscle-like arrangement suitable for further studies.
Subcellular and Nuclear Organization During Formation of Ordered Myotubes
Double staining of F-actin and double-stranded DNA (nuclei) showed that bundles of actin filaments extended for long distances through the syncytial myotubes more or less in parallel with their length axis (Figures 2B and 2C). On control glass, this was not as evident because the myotubes often were arranged in layers forming a crisscross pattern. Furthermore, in striking contrast to the 2DMS technique, the myotubes on control glass often branched, forming several different extensions (Figure 2B). Myotubes grown with the 2DMS technique were organized in parallel and separated from each other (Figure 2C). Interestingly, bundles of F-actin fused into thicker assemblies and often the staining intensity displayed regular variations, suggesting that their amount or packing of F-actin was altered into a repetitive pattern along the bundle (Figure 2D), in agreement with previous observations of a sarcomere-like arrangement in developing myotubes (Lloyd et al. 2004 Spontaneous contractions of myotubes were observed on both control and 2DMS glass, albeit in a fraction of the cells only. To test if the contractile capacity of 2DMS-cultured myotubes was different from control cultures, electrical stimulation was performed. This increased the number of contracting cells (Day 6, data not shown), with no difference between the two systems. However, with the 2DMS technique, the electrically stimulated contractions were synchronized, making the parallel myotubes operate as a unit.
Visualization of the nuclei by DAPI showed an extensive clustering of this organelle after fusion (Figure 2B). Scrutinizing this phenomenon and defining clustering as the situation when two or more nuclei were located closer to each other than one nuclear diameter showed that
Molecular Changes During Myotube Formation Seen With the 2DMS Technique
To follow muscle differentiation, we studied the distribution of the two different transcription factors Myf5 and MyoD, which are known to operate at different stages of myogenesis (Braun et al. 1989
We used the 2DMS technique in combination with fluorescence microscopy to study MyoD protein expression and localization at three different stages of myogenesis: mononucleated myoblasts (Day 1), intermediate fusion stage (Day 3), and mature myotubes (Day 6). We found that MyoD but not Myf5 was heterogeneously distributed in myoblasts. Concentrating on MyoD, all mononucleated myoblasts displayed cytoplasmic MyoD protein expression. However, the mononucleated myoblast population was separated into two subgroups: one with cells showing an intense nuclear staining (MyoD+) and one with nuclei virtually devoid of MyoD (MyoD–; Figure 5). The variation in nuclear MyoD expression was observed in myoblasts after 1 day in culture and led us to analyze the MyoD content also in intermediate and mature myotubes. The developing myotubes each contained several nuclei both positive and negative for MyoD (i.e., MyoD+ and MyoD–). Thus, the variation of MyoD expression in mononucleated myoblasts was also observed in -nucleated myotubes. However, after continued differentiation, all myotube nuclei became MyoD–, but MyoD staining was observed in perinuclear regions of the cytoplasm (Figure 6 ). Furthermore, at the intermediate stage, MyoD+ and MyoD– nuclei were regularly occurring closely together in the same nuclear cluster, and occasionally, puncta of cytoplasmic MyoD staining were seen to colocalize with actin filament bundles in the perinuclear area (Figure 7 ).
Here we showed the usefulness of micro-patterned glass to study myoblast fusion and subsequent phenomena coupled to muscle differentiation. The etched surface caused the cells to organize into a pattern reflecting the parallel arrangement of muscle fibers in vivo, resulting in the formation of an in vitro 2DMS. The myotubes on these glass substrates, with no use of special coating or special media, are separated from each other, making this technique particularly suitable for microscopy and also allowing for micro-manipulation of individual -nucleated cells, thereby extending the usefulness of previous techniques (Clark et al. 1997
After having established that C2C12 myoblasts proliferated and fused into myotubes on the etched glasses without introduction of special culture conditions, we used the 2DMS technique to characterize the distribution of a set of functionally distinct proteins. Visualization of the microfilament system by phalloidin-staining of filamentous actin showed that stress fibers in newly formed myotubes fuse into larger assemblies. As judged from their fluorescence intensity, these bundles extended through the myotubes for long distances largely in parallel with their length axis and apparently contained repetitively organized segments of highly concentrated actin filaments. This could reflect initial stages in myofibrillogenesis, supporting the idea that stress fibers act as templates for the final organization of sarcomer-containing myofibrils (Lloyd et al. 2004
The nuclei in myotubes cultured with the 2DMS technique had an elongated morphology compared with the more rounded form found in myotubes cultured on control glass. The reason for this is unclear but could result from tension generation, either as a consequence of contractile forces developed during myofibril formation or during nuclear translocation by the microtubule and/or microfilament systems. The nuclei in myotubes cultured with the 2DMS technique more often appeared in clusters. In vivo studies have shown that nuclear clustering occurs near neuromuscular junctions (Bruusgaard et al. 2006
Examining the protein expression pattern of the glucose transporters GLUT1 and GLUT4 by antibody staining showed that GLUT1 mainly was present in myoblasts and GLUT4 was seen preferentially in myotubes in agreement with previous observations (Guillet-Deniau et al. 1994
During the differentiation of the C2C12 cells, we observed a variation in the nuclear content of MyoD. In later stages of myotube formation (Day 6), all nuclei were negative for MyoD, (MyoD–). However, after fusion (Day 3), we observed that the multinucleated myotubes contained both MyoD+ and MyoD– nuclei. Because we noted that, before fusion, the cultures of myoblasts (Day 1) were heterogeneous with respect to MyoD expression, as also reported by Yoshida et al. (1998)
The role of MyoD in transcriptional control of myogenesis has been extensively studied (Berkes and Tapscott 2005
The fact that, at later stages of myogenesis, all myotube nuclei became MyoD negative, poses interesting problems concerning coordinated gene regulation and MyoD turnover within the myotubes, which will be further addressed with this system. The colocalization of MyoD-containing puncta with actin bundles tentatively points to an actomyosin-dependent trafficking of the transcription factor between the nuclear and cytoplasmic compartments, and it is plausible that such transportation is part of this regulation of MyoD. Congruent with such a view, nucleo-cytoplasmatic shuttling of MyoD has been proposed (Lingbeck et al. 2003 Although shown here for skeletal muscle cells, the 2DMS technique should be advantageous for studies of other syncytia-forming cells as well. We further conclude that combining the 2DMS technique with live cell imaging will enable detailed studies of protein expression and dynamic processes during and after such syncytia formation.
This work was supported by grants to T.B. and R.K. from the Swedish Research Council, to T.B. from Novonordiskfonden (Novo Nordisk Foundation) and Stiftelsen Svenska Diabetes-förbundets Forskningsfond (Foundation of the Research Fund of the Swedish Diabetes Association), to R.K. from Carl Tryggers Foundation, and to G.S. from the European Commission (MC-RTN "CELLION").We thank Dr. Anna-Stina Höglund, Uppsala University, for fruitful discussions.
Received for publication February 26, 2008; accepted June 6, 2008
Berkes CA, Tapscott SJ (2005) MyoD and the transcriptional control of myogenesis. Semin Cell Dev Biol 16:585–595[CrossRef][Medline] Braun T, Bober E, Buschhausen-Denker G, Kohtz S, Grzeschik KH, Arnold HH (1989) Differential expression of myogenic determination genes in muscle cells: possible autoactivation by the Myf gene products. EMBO J 8:3617–3625[Medline] Brunette DM, Kenner GS, Gould TR (1983) Grooved titanium surfaces orient growth and migration of cells from human gingival explants. J Dent Res 62:1045–1048 Bruusgaard JC, Liestol K, Gundersen K (2006) Distribution of myonuclei and microtubules in live muscle fibers of young, middle-aged, and old mice. J Appl Physiol 100:2024–2030 Chen EH, Olson EN (2004) Towards a molecular pathway for myoblast fusion in Drosophila. Trends Cell Biol 14:452–460[CrossRef][Medline] Chesmel KD, Black J (1995) Cellular responses to chemical and morphologic aspects of biomaterial surfaces. I. A novel in vitro model system. J Biomed Mater Res 29:1089–1099[CrossRef][Medline] Clark P, Coles D, Peckham M (1997) Preferential adhesion to and survival on patterned laminin organizes myogenesis in vitro. Exp Cell Res 230:275–283[CrossRef][Medline] Cornelison DD, Olwin BB, Rudnicki MA, Wold BJ (2000) MyoD(–/–) satellite cells in single-fiber culture are differentiation defective and MRF4 deficient. Dev Biol 224:122–137[CrossRef][Medline] Cushman SW, Wardzala LJ (1980) Potential mechanism of insulin action on glucose transport in the isolated rat adipose cell. Apparent translocation of intracellular transport systems to the plasma membrane. J Biol Chem 255:4758–4762 Engler AJ, Griffin MA, Sen S, Bonnemann CG, Sweeney HL, Discher DE (2004) Myotubes differentiate optimally on substrates with tissue-like stiffness: pathological implications for soft or stiff microenvironments. J Cell Biol 166:877–887 Evans DJ, Britland S, Wigmore PM (1999) Differential response of fetal and neonatal myoblasts to topographical guidance cues in vitro. Dev Genes Evol 209:438–442[CrossRef][Medline] Feng J, Chan-Park MB, Shen J, Chan V (2007) Quick layer-by-layer assembly of aligned multilayers of vascular smooth muscle cells in deep microchannels. Tissue Eng 13:1003–1012[CrossRef][Medline] Grounds MD, Garrett KL, Beilharz MW (1992) The transcription of MyoD1 and myogenin genes in thymic cells in vivo. Exp Cell Res 198:357–361[CrossRef][Medline] Guillet-Deniau I, Leturque A, Girard J (1994) Expression and cellular localization of glucose transporters (GLUT1, GLUT3, GLUT4) during differentiation of myogenic cells isolated from rat foetuses. J Cell Sci 107:487–496[Abstract] Hotulainen P, Lappalainen P (2006) Stress fibers are generated by two distinct actin assembly mechanisms in motile cells. J Cell Biol 173:383–394 Jasmer DP, Kwak D (2006) Fusion and differentiation of murine C2C12 skeletal muscle cells that express Trichinella spiralis p43 protein. Exp Parasitol 112:67–75[CrossRef][Medline] Lindon C, Montarras D, Pinset C (1998) Cell cycle-regulated expression of the muscle determination factor Myf5 in proliferating myoblasts. J Cell Biol 140:111–118 Lingbeck JM, Trausch-Azar JS, Ciechanover A, Schwartz AL (2003) Determinants of nuclear and cytoplasmic ubiquitin-mediated degradation of MyoD. J Biol Chem 278:1817–1823 Lloyd CM, Berendse M, Lloyd DG, Schevzov G, Grounds MD (2004) A novel role for non-muscle gamma-actin in skeletal muscle sarcomere assembly. Exp Cell Res 297:82–96[CrossRef][Medline] Mulder MM, Hitchcock RW, Tresco PA (1998) Skeletal myogenesis on elastomeric substrates: implications for tissue engineering. J Biomater Sci Polym Ed 9:731–748[CrossRef][Medline] Nordquist J, Hoglund AS, Norman H, Tang X, Dworkin B, Larsson L (2007) Transcription factors in muscle atrophy caused by blocked neuromuscular transmission and muscle unloading in rats. Mol Med 13:461–470[Medline] Perry RL, Rudnick MA (2000) Molecular mechanisms regulating myogenic determination and differentiation. Front Biosci 5:D750–767[Medline] Ploug T, van Deurs B, Ai H, Cushman SW, Ralston E (1998) Analysis of GLUT4 distribution in whole skeletal muscle fibers: identification of distinct storage compartments that are recruited by insulin and muscle contractions. J Cell Biol 142:1429–1446 Riquelme C, Barthel KK, Qin XF, Liu X (2006) Ubc9 expression is essential for myotube formation in C2C12. Exp Cell Res 312:2132–2141[CrossRef][Medline] Rudnicki MA, Braun T, Hinuma S, Jaenisch R (1992) Inactivation of MyoD in mice leads to up-regulation of the myogenic HLH gene Myf-5 and results in apparently normal muscle development. Cell 71:383–390[CrossRef][Medline] Sanger JW, Kang S, Siebrands CC, Freeman N, Du A, Wang J, Stout AL, et al. (2005) How to build a myofibril. J Muscle Res Cell Motil 26:343–354[CrossRef][Medline] Suzuki K, Kono T (1980) Evidence that insulin causes translocation of glucose transport activity to the plasma membrane from an intracellular storage site. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 77:2542–2545 Vandromme M, Carnac G, Gauthier-Rouviere C, Fesquet D, Lamb N, Fernandez A (1994) Nuclear import of the myogenic factor MyoD requires cAMP-dependent protein kinase activity but not the direct phosphorylation of MyoD. J Cell Sci 107:613–620[Abstract] Wang W, Hansen PA, Marshall BA, Holloszy JO, Mueckler M (1996) Insulin unmasks a COOH-terminal Glut4 epitope and increases glucose transport across T-tubules in skeletal muscle. J Cell Biol 135:415–430 White JD, Scaffidi A, Davies M, McGeachie J, Rudnicki MA, Grounds MD (2000) Myotube formation is delayed but not prevented in MyoD-deficient skeletal muscle: studies in regenerating whole muscle grafts of adult mice. J Histochem Cytochem 48:1531–1544 Yan W, George S, Fotadar U, Tyhovych N, Kamer A, Yost MJ, Price RL, et al. (2007) Tissue engineering of skeletal muscle. Tissue Eng 13:2781–2790[CrossRef][Medline] Yoshida N, Yoshida S, Koishi K, Masuda K, Nabeshima Y (1998) Cell heterogeneity upon myogenic differentiation: down-regulation of MyoD and Myf-5 generates reserve cells. J Cell Sci 111:769–779[Abstract] Zammit PS, Golding JP, Nagata Y, Hudon V, Partridge TA, Beauchamp JR (2004) Muscle satellite cells adopt divergent fates: a mechanism for self-renewal? J Cell Biol 166:347–357
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||