Team:HZAU-China/Basic Part
Pyroptosis is a form of lytic programmed cell death with inflammation. Recent studies reported that the N-terminal of GSDMD acts as an effector of pyroptosis. Full length GSDMD (GSDMD FL) is cleaved by Caspase 1, releasing the pore-forming domain (GSDMD-N275), which can oligomerize and make pores on the cell membrane. Formation of pores causes cell to swell, leading to membrane rupture and massive leakage of cytosolic contents1.
We fused eGFP with GSDMD-N275 (N-terminal 275 amino acids) and GSDMD FL (full length), respectively. Then the corresponding plasmids were transfected into Hela GSDMD knockout (KO) cell. Cell microscopy showed that the cells transfected with GSDMD-N275 underwent pyroptosis while the cells with GSDMD FL did not (Figure 1). We also tested the cell viability through an ATP assay (CellTiter-Glo® Luminescent Cell Viability Assay) and demonstrated that GSDMD-N275 and mutants of GSDMD FL have different abilities to induce pyroptosis (Figure 2).
Figure 1. Microscopy of the Hela GSDMD KO cells transfected with pCS2-eGFP-GSDMD FL (above) and pCS2-eGFP-GSDMD-N275 (below), respectively. Pyroptotic cells are pointed by red arrow.
1. Grow Hela GSDMD KO cells in a humidified 37 °C, 5% CO2 tissue-culture incubator.
2. Count the cells using a hemocytometer. Seed in 24-well (5 × 10^4 per well) and grow.
Transfection
1. Dilute 0.5 μg DNA into 50 μl jetPRIME® buffer (supplied). Mix by vortexing.
2. Add 1 μl jetPRIME®, vortex for 10 s, spin down briefly.
3. Incubate for 10 min at RT.
4. Add 50μl of transfection mix per well drop wise onto the cells in serum containing medium, and distribute evenly.
5. Gently rock the plates back and forth and from side to side.
6. If needed, replace transfection medium after 4 h by cell growth medium and return the plates to the incubator.
Observation is taken after 1.5 h.
Figure 2. Cell viability of the 293T cells transfected with pCS2-Flag-GSDMD FL, pCS2-Flag-GSDMD-N275, pCS2-Flag-GSDMD L290D, pCS2-Flag-GSDMD Y373D, pCS2-Flag-GSDMD A377D, respectively. Asterisks indicate the statistically significant differences. ATP-based cell viability was measured (n=6).
1. Grow HEK293T cells in a humidified 37 °C, 5% CO2 tissue-culture incubator.
2. Count the cells using a hemocytometer. Seed in 96-well (1 × 10^4 per well) and grow overnight.
3. Transfect 0.5 μg DNA per well.
4. Equilibrate the plate and its contents at room temperature for approximately 30 minutes after 20 h.
5. Add a volume of CellTiter-Glo® Reagent equal to the volume of cell culture medium present in each well. (add 100 μl of reagent to 100 μl of medium containing cells for a 96-well plate).
6. Mix contents for 2 minutes on an orbital shaker to induce cell lysis.
7. Allow the plate to incubate at room temperature for 10 minutes to stabilize luminescent signal.
8. Record luminescence.
Expression of the N-terminal of GSDMD fused with eGFP (eGFP-GSDMD-N275) in Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium str. SL1344 ΔsifA is under the control of Ptet. The colony-forming unit (CFU) was measured for counting the number of viable bacterial cells (Figure 3). This result shows that eGFP-GSDMD-N275 exhibits cytotoxicity in bacteria.
Figure 3. CFU comparison between the SL1344 ΔsifA cells with eGFP-GSDMD-N275 plasmid and with the empty vector. In each group, ATc (15μg/ml) was added into medium when bacterium grew to logarithmic phase (OD = 0.6~0.8). Vector refers to bacterium containing a high copy number plasmid which only expresses TetR under the control of Ptet. CFU for vector and eGFP-GSDMD-N275 are shown in the logarithmic form (log10) (n=3).
2. When OD reaching to 0.6-0.8, add anhydrotetracycline with final concentration of μg/ml to induce the expression of EGFP-GSDMD-N275.
3. Take 100 μl diluted culture to plate on LB agar plates containing appropriate concentration of antibody after 1.5 hours of induce.
Observation is taken overnight.
Expression of the N-terminal of GSDMD fused with eGFP (eGFP-GSDMD-N275) is under the control of tet promoter in ΔsifA SL1344. Hela GSDMD KO cells were infected with ΔsifA SL1344. Inducer ATc (16μg/mL) were added 3h after infection. Microscopy shows that eGFP-GSDMD-N275 located in cytoplasm after 5 min of induction and triggered pyroptosis after 30 min of induction (Figure 4). After 1.5 h of induction, Hela GSDMD KO cells underwent second necrosis caused by bacterial infection without inducer. Morphology of this process is similar to pyroptosis2. Thus, the population of ruptured cells was counted. There is 1.96 fold change between control group and induced group (Figure 5). So the pyroptosis of host cell in the induced group was triggered by eGFP-GSDMD-N275 not by bacterial infection.
Figure 4. Hela GSDMD KO cells were infected with ΔsifA SL1344 containing high copy number plasmids which express eGFP-GSDMD-N275 under the control of ATc. Photographs were captured 5 min, 30 min, 90 min after induction, respectively.
Figure 5.Ruptured cells in a field of view were counted.
1. Grow Hela GSDMD KO cells in a humidified 37 °C, 5% CO2 tissue-culture incubator.
2. Count the cells using a hemocytometer. Seed in 24-well (5 × 10^4 per well) and grow overnight.
Preparation of Bacteria
1. Grow bacteria overnight 16 h in 2 mL LB in a 15-mL tube. Incubate at 37 °C in a shaking incubator (200 rpm).
2. Subculture bacteria by transferring 300 μL of the overnight culture into 5 mL of LB in a loosely capped 50-mL tube. Incubate at 37 °C in a shaking incubator (200 rpm) to late log phase.
3. Pellet 1 mL of the Salmonella subculture by centrifugation at 1,000×g in a microfuge for 2 min at room temperature.
4. Remove 900 μL of supernatant and gently resuspend the pellet in 900 μL PBS.
Infection
1. Aspirate media and rinse the monolayer twice with PBS.
2. Inoculate cells with bacteria (MOI = 100) by adding bacteria directly to the cell-culture supernatant.
3. Incubate for 2 h at 37 °C in 5% CO2.
4. Aspirate media and wash.
5. Add fresh GM containing 100 μg/mL gentamicin and 16 μg/mL incubate at 37 °C in 5% CO2.
Observation is taken after 5 min, 30 min, 90min.
| Name | Type | Description | Designer | Length(bp) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| BBa_K2632002 | Promoter | Promoter sifA | Mo Qiqin | 331 |
| BBa_K2632003 | Coding | N-terminal of GasderminD (1-275aa) | Zhujun Xia | 825 |
| BBa_K2632004 | Coding | Full length Gasdermin D | Zhujun Xia | 1455 |
| BBa_K2632005 | Coding | L290D mutant of full length Gasdermin D | Zhujun Xia | 1455 |
| BBa_K2632007 | Coding | A377D mutant of full length Gasdermin D. | Zhujun Xia | 1455 |
1. Ding, J. et al. Pore-forming activity and structural autoinhibition of the gasdermin family. Nature 535, 111-116, doi:10.1038/nature18590 (2016).
2. He, W. T. et al. Gasdermin D is an executor of pyroptosis and required for interleukin-1beta secretion. Cell research 25, 1285-1298, doi:10.1038/cr.2015.139 (2015).
