ARTICLE |
Correspondence to: Lars-Inge Larsson, Div. of Cell Biology, Dept. of Anatomy and Physiology, The Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University, Gronnegaardsvej 7, Dk-1870 Frederiksberg C, Denmark. E-mail: lail@kvl.dk
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Summary |
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The p53 protein is a major regulator of cell cycle progression and apoptosis. We used a p53enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) construct for transfections into human breast cancer (MCF-7) cells. Cells expressing p53EGFP showed an increased apoptotic index compared to cells transfected with EGFP alone. Interestingly, apoptotic cells showed localization of p53EGFP to both nuclei and cytoplasm, whereas non-apoptotic cells usually only showed nuclear localization of p53-EGFP. This result is in agreement with the hypothesis that p53 induces apoptosis by interaction with both nuclear and cytoplasmic targets. Transfected p53-deficient osteosarcoma cells were used for immunofluorescence quantitation. The intensity of immunofluorescence for either p53 or EGFP showed excellent linear correlation to the EGFP autofluorescence, proving that measurements of immunofluorescence intensities can be used for determining endogenous protein levels.
(J Histochem Cytochem 49:13631367, 2001)
Key Words: p53, EGFP, indirect immunofluorescence, quantitation, digital microscopy, apoptosis
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Introduction |
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MANY WORKERS have reported on the use of quantitative immunocytochemistry for determining relative or absolute amounts of tissue antigens. This approach has also been extended to the quantitation of specific mRNA species as revealed by immunocytochemical detection of in situ hybridization reactions. Data supporting the validity of such quantitations come from studies correlating biochemical measurements of antigens (or mRNAs) to in situ densitometrical measurements of immunocytochemical stainings of cells or tissue sections (
However, correlations of the type described involve more or less artificial models or make use of biochemical measurements on large populations of cells. A better approach would be to directly correlate staining intensities of individual cells to their content of antigens. Since the cloning of green fluorescent protein from the jellyfish Aequorea, directed mutations have produced genes encoding proteins that show autofluorescence in the blue to red range of the spectrum (reviewed by
It occurred to us that fluorescent proteins might constitute useful internal standards for indirect immunofluorescence. We therefore transfected human Saos-2 cells, which lack the p53 gene, with a construct encoding a p53-enhanced green fluorescent protein (p53EGFP) chimera. In double-stained cells, the endogenous EGFP fluorescence was measured and correlated to indirect immunofluorescence measurements of the EGFP and p53 parts of the chimeric protein. The results show that quantitation of endogenous proteins by indirect immunofluorescence is feasible. Moreover, the results also show that, similar to wild-type p53, the p53EGFP chimeric protein induces apoptosis in transfected cells.
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Materials and Methods |
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Cell Lines and Transfections
Saos-2 cells were cultured in Dulbecco's minimum essential medium (MEM) with glutamax-1 (Life Technologies; Lexington, KY) and 10% fetal calf serum (FCS). MCF-7 cells were cultured in Eagle's MEM with glutamax-1 and 10% FCS. Both media were fortified with 100 U/ml penicillin and 100 µg/ml streptomycin. For transfections with clonfectin (Clontech; Palo Alto, CA), Saos-2 or MCF-7 cells were grown on sterile slides in 90-mm culture dishes. When they reached about 70% confluency, cells were transfected with 1.5 µg/ml of either a p53EGFP vector (pp53EGFP; Clontech) or a control vector encoding only EGFP (pEGFP-C1; Clontech) using 1.5 µg/ml clonfectin for 8 hr (as recommended by the manufacturer). Both vectors were under control of the human cytomegalovirus (CMV) immediate-early promoter. Twenty-four hours after transfection, cells were fixed in 3.7% paraformaldehyde (Merck; Darmstadt, Germany) in 0.1 M sodium phosphate buffer, pH 7.4, for 10 min at 4C and were then permeabilized with 1% Triton X-100 for 10 min.
Immunofluorescence and TUNEL Staining
Cells were either mounted directly in antifade medium or underwent indirect immunofluorescence staining using either a monoclonal p53 (IgG2b) antibody (5 µg/ml) (Dako; Glostrup, Denmark) or a monoclonal anti-green fluorescent protein (GFP) (IgG2a) antibody (25 µg/ml) (Clontech) crossreacting with EGFP. Specimens to be used for quantitation were double stained with p53 and GFP antibodies using biotin-conjugated goat anti-mouse IgG2b antibody (10 µg/ml) (Southern Biotechnology Associates; Birmingham, AL) followed by aminomethyl-coumarin (AMCA)-labeled streptavidin (20 µg/ml) (Vector Laboratories; Burlingame, CA) and Texas red-labeled goat-anti mouse IgG2a antibody (Southern Biotechnology Associates) for detection.
Some specimens were also reacted with the TUNEL method (
Quantitations
Cells transfected with p53EGFP and double stained for p53 and EGFP were examined in an inverted Nikon fluorescence microscope equipped with a Photometrics cooled CCD camera or in a Leica DMRXA microscope fitted with a Leica Q-FISH system. Transfected cells were located using excitation in blue (488-nm) light and images were sequentially acquired using selective FITC, AMCA, and Texas red filter blocks. Image acquisition time was fixed by the software and the time from cell localization to initation of image capture was less than 5 sec. Captured images were analyzed using either the Image-Pro Plus program (Media Cybernetics; Silver Spring, MA) or the Leica Q-WIN software. Nuclei were selected by tracing and measured. An area outside the cells was similarly traced and measured and the value subtracted from the nuclear fluorescence values. In addition, specimens containing cells transfected with either p53EGFP or with EGFP alone and re-stained with the TUNEL method and bisbenzimide were coded and the number of transfected cells that contained condensed DNA and were TUNEL-positive was determined by counting.
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Results |
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Human breast cancer (MCF-7) cells, which express a normal p53 gene, were transfected with a p53EGFP construct. The transfections resulted in the appearance of the green fluorescent chimeric protein in about 5% of the cells. In most cells the green fluorescence was confined to the nuclei (excluding nucleoli), but occasional cells also displayed cytoplasmic green fluorescence. Control cells transfected with EGFP alone expressed both nuclear and cytoplasmic fluorescence. Immunocytochemical double stainings of p53EGFP-transfected cells showed that the green fluorescent cells also were immunopositive for both the p53 and the EGFP portion of the chimeric protein (Fig 1). Occasional non-transfected cells also stained for p53, reflecting the endogenous production of this protein in MCF-7 cells.
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TUNEL and bisbenzimide staining showed that many of the p53EGFP-transfected cells were apoptotic. Interestingly, all of these cells showed the presence of p53 in both the nucleus and cytoplasm (Fig 1), whereas non-apoptotic cells showed localization of p53 either to the nucleus only or to both the nucleus and cytoplasm. Counting of TUNEL-positive cells showed that cells transfected with p53EGFP had a much higher apoptotic index than control cells transfected with EGFP alone. Thus, whereas 34.7 ± 10.9% of the p53EGFP-transfected cells were apoptotic, only 14.3 ± 3.5% of cells transfected with EGFP alone were apoptotic. However, the apoptotic index of the EGFP-transfected control cells was higher than that of untransfected cells (1.1 ± 0.6%), indicating that transfection with EGFP alone also induces apoptosis.
Because MCF-7 cells express endogenous p53 they were not suitable for quantitative immunofluorescence measurements of the expression of transfected EGFPp53. For this part of the experiment we selected Saos-2 cells, which do not express endogenous p53. Transfection of such cells with the p53EGFP construct induced green fluorescence in nuclei of scattered cells. In most experiments about 5% of the cells were transfected. The intensity of the EGFP fluorescence varied among cells. Immunofluorescent double staining for p53 and EGFP revealed detectable fluorescence only in cells that also expressed green EGFP autofluorescence. Most fluorescence occurred over nuclei (excluding nucleoli) but additional cytoplasmic fluorescence was also observed in some cells. Measurements of indirect immunofluorescence intensities for p53 and EGFP over individual nuclei showed that the intensities correlated well with each other and with the green EGFP autofluorescence (Fig 2). Although highest fluorescence intensities were recorded with Texas red, all transfected cells were detected with all three methods. The GFP antibody was tested at dilutions of 2 and 5 µg/ml, both of which resulted in maximal fluorescence values, indicating that saturating antibody concentrations had been reached.
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Discussion |
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Our results show that transfection of cultured neoplastic cells with a p53EGFP construct results in nuclear targeting of the chimeric protein and in an increased apoptotic index. Together, these results strongly indicate that the chimera functions like wild-type p53. The induction of apoptosis agrees with previously published findings using transfections with p53 constructs not containing EGFP (
Our data support the belief that EGFP-p53 constitutes a good marker for endogenous p53 trafficking in cells and may be useful for elucidating nuclear and cytoplasmic targets for this protein. The observation that EGFP expression alone increases apoptosis concurs with previous data on the toxicity of overexpressed EGFP (cf.
The central role of p53 in apoptotic regulation makes it of great interest to quantitate p53 in individual cells. To study this aspect we used Saos-2 cells, which lack endogenous p53 expression. Our results show that p53 quantitation by immunofluorescence is indeed possible and indicate that the approach used may also be helpful for quantitating other proteins. It should be emphasized that transfected cells had to be located in fluorescent light because there was no other means to identify them. This approach is associated with the risk for photobleaching of the fluorophores, and we therefore performed cell measurements in as quick and standardized a way as possible. Although the excellent correlations obtained show that this approach is possible, we strongly advocate the use of cell identification by phase or differential interference contrast optics before measurements, whenever possible.
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Acknowledgments |
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Supported by the Danish Medical Research Council, the Danish Agricultural and Veterinary Research Council, and the Danish Cancer Society.
Received for publication July 16, 2001; accepted July 18, 2001.
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