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Ex vivo immunocapture and functional characterization of cell-type-specific mitochondria using MitoTag mice

Nature Protocols volume 18, pages 2181–2220 (2023)Cite this article

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Abstract

Mitochondria are key bioenergetic organelles involved in many biosynthetic and signaling pathways. However, their differential contribution to specific functions of cells within complex tissues is difficult to dissect with current methods. The present protocol addresses this need by enabling the ex vivo immunocapture of cell-type-specific mitochondria directly from their tissue context through a MitoTag reporter mouse. While other available methods were developed for bulk mitochondria isolation or more abundant cell-type-specific mitochondria, this protocol was optimized for the selective isolation of functional mitochondria from medium-to-low-abundant cell types in a heterogeneous tissue, such as the central nervous system. The protocol has three major parts: First, mitochondria of a cell type of interest are tagged via an outer mitochondrial membrane eGFP by crossing MitoTag mice to a cell-type-specific Cre-driver line or by delivery of viral vectors for Cre expression. Second, homogenates are prepared from relevant tissues by nitrogen cavitation, from which tagged organelles are immunocaptured using magnetic microbeads. Third, immunocaptured mitochondria are used for downstream assays, e.g., to probe respiratory capacity or calcium handling, revealing cell-type-specific mitochondrial diversity in molecular composition and function. The MitoTag approach enables the identification of marker proteins to label cell-type-specific organelle populations in situ, elucidates cell-type-enriched mitochondrial metabolic and signaling pathways, and reveals functional mitochondrial diversity between adjacent cell types in complex tissues, such as the brain. Apart from establishing the mouse colony (6–8 weeks without import), the immunocapture protocol takes 2 h and functional assays require 1–2 h.

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Fig. 1: Workflow for the isolation of cell-type-specific mitochondria.
Fig. 2: Outline of Steps 12–32 to capture cell-type-specific mitochondria.
Fig. 3: Sample pictures and tools for the capture of cell-type-specific mitochondria (Steps 15–32).
Fig. 4: Optimization and performance of the immunocapture protocol for cell-type-specific mitochondria.
Fig. 5: Anticipated results for IC and functional characterization of cell-type-specific mitochondria.
Fig. 6: Outline of Step 32C to functionally probe mitochondrial bioenergetics via the Seahorse analyzer.
Fig. 7: Outline of Step 32D to functionally probe for mitochondrial Ca2+ uptake ex vivo.

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Data availability

Data presented in this article have been previously published and associated raw data are provided in the related article6.

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Acknowledgements

We thank all authors of the related article6 for their contribution to the establishment and validation of the MitoTag mouse model. Work in T.M.’s laboratory is supported by the DFG: CRC870 A11-ID 118803580, TRR 274/1 B03/ C02-ID 408885537, Mi 694/7-1, Mi 694/8-1, Mi 694/9-1 A03-ID 428663564, FOR ImmunoStroke and the ERC under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Program (FP/2007-2013; ERC grant agreement no. 616791). T.M. is a member of and supported by the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) and by the Munich Center for Systems Neurology (SyNergy EXC 2145; Project ID 390857198). N.P.d.M. and C.F. were enrolled in the Munich Graduate School of Systemic Neurosciences (GSC 82–ID 24184143). Work in F.P.’s laboratory is supported by the Munich Center for Systems Neurology (SyNergy EXC 2145; Project ID 390857198) and the ExNet-0041-Phase2-3 (‘SyNergy-HMGU’) through the Initiative and Network Fund of the Helmholtz Association. The authors thank H.C. Delgado de la Herran, Y. Hufnagel and M. Feng for help with material and data collection.

Author information

Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Natalia Prudente de Mello, Caroline Fecher.

  2. These authors jointly supervised this work: Fabiana Perocchi, Thomas Misgeld.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Neuronal Cell Biology, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany

    Natalia Prudente de Mello, Caroline Fecher, Adrian Marti Pastor, Fabiana Perocchi & Thomas Misgeld

  2. Institute for Diabetes and Obesity, Helmholtz Zentrum München, Munich, Germany

    Natalia Prudente de Mello & Fabiana Perocchi

  3. Graduate School of Systemic Neurosciences, Ludwig-Maximilians Universität München, Munich, Germany

    Natalia Prudente de Mello & Caroline Fecher

  4. Department of Cell Biology & Physiology, School of Medicine, Washington University in St Louis, St Louis, MO, USA

    Caroline Fecher

  5. Munich Cluster for Systems Neurology, Munich, Germany

    Fabiana Perocchi & Thomas Misgeld

  6. German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases, Munich, Germany

    Thomas Misgeld

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Contributions

N.P.d.M. and C.F. collected and analyzed the data. C.F. and N.P.d.M designed the figures with help from F.P. and T.M. A.M.P generated the video. All authors contributed to writing, editing and revision of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Fabiana Perocchi or Thomas Misgeld.

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Fecher, C. et al. Nat. Neurosci. 22, 1731–1742 (2019): https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-019-0479-z

Extended data

Extended Data Fig. 1 MitoTag genetic strategy.

a, MitoTag locus recombination within the endogenous Rosa26 locus occurs during the crossing of MitoTag mice with Cre-driver lines generating recombined animals (F1) that express GFP-OMM in Cre+ cells (green element). e1/2, exon 1/2; P*, cell-type-specific promoter. b, MitoTag PCR result demonstrating PCR primer specificity for the MitoTag allele. PCR products: wild-type Rosa26 locus (WT), ~600 bp (see lane 3); MitoTag transgene, 324 bp (see lane 6). Consult Step 3A(iv–xiii) for genotyping protocol. The Rosa26-tm4(CAG-EGFP*) reporter mouse is another Rosa26 knock-in model that Cre-conditionally expresses GFP localized to the mitochondrial matrix (mito-EGFP). Note the absence of PCR product in this homozygous sample in lane 5. Primers are specific for both alleles, GFP-OMM and the endogenous Rosa26 locus. The sample in lane 5 is from a homozygous Rosa26-tm4(CAG-EGFP*) mouse. A PCR against GFP would not discriminate between the two Rosa26 reporter mouse models. All animal experiments were approved by the responsible regulatory agencies (Regierung von Oberbayern). a, adapted from ref. 6, Springer Nature Ltd.

Extended Data Fig. 2 MitoTag recombination in astrocytes through a number of Cre-driver lines and adeno-associated viral vector.

a-f, MitoTag mice were recombined with different Cre-driver lines for the expression in astrocytes: a, mGFAP:Cre (77.6); b, hGFAP:CreERT2; c, Aldh1¦1:Cre; d, Sept4:Cre; and e, Plp1:Cre/ERT; or neonatally injected with AAV9-CamkII.Cre virus (f, cerebellum and cortex). In cerebellum, two populations of astrocytes are present, namely Bergmann glia in the molecular layer (ML) with their cell body localized in the Purkinje cell layer (PCL) and protoplasmic astrocytes in the granule cell layer (GCL). Asterisks indicate leaky expression and off-target recombination. Scale bar, 1 mm for sagittal brain, 50 µm for detailed images. Further information on the Cre-driver lines is given in Table 1. All animal experiments were approved by the responsible regulatory agencies (Regierung von Oberbayern). a, adapted from ref. 6, Springer Nature Ltd.

Extended Data Fig. 3 Essential equipment for the tissue homogenization Step 16.

a, Dounce glass tissue homogenizers of different sizes (volume and clearance, see Table 4). #A can be used for soft tissue and homogenization by hand, while #20, 22-24 are used in combination with a motorized rotor (300 rpm for the present protocol) and for different tissue sources (brain, liver, muscle tissue). b, Sample pictures illustrating the final immunocapture in Step 29 and 31. Note, final samples can vary in size and color between IC Tom and IC GFP dependent on the abundance of GFP-OMM tagged mitochondria in tissue lysate and the amount of microbeads used. Microbeads are present as dark central spot within the sample pellet and we have not observed adverse effects due to their presence in functional downstream assays. All animal experiments were approved by the responsible regulatory agencies (Regierung von Oberbayern).

Extended Data Fig. 4 Troubleshooting of mitochondrial viability via oxygen consumption rate (OCR) measurement.

a, Protocol stage 2 illustrating the generation of a single-cell tissue homogenate in Step 16. For mitochondrial bioenergetics, two tissue lysate concentrations were generated in IB+: 5 mg/ml and 20 mg/ml, as recommended in our protocol. Immunocapture with IC Tom was performed from both samples as outlined in the PROCEDURE. b, Oxygen consumption ratio (OCR) via complex I (pyruvate/malate) from samples outlined in a (5 mg/ml, light orange; 20 mg/ml, orange) using 2 ug mitochondria/well supplemented with 10 mM pyruvate and 2 mM malate. The following compounds and concentrations were injected in the assay: ADP (4 mM), oligomycin A (Oligo, 1.5 µM), CCCP (10 µM), and rotenone (2 µM) together with antimycin A (4 µM; AA). The graph shows that mitochondrial functionality can be affected by the initial dilution during homogenisation, which is observed by the low OCR levels and unresponsiveness to the compounds of the 5 mg/ml sample (light orange) compared with the expected mitochondrial modulator responses of the standard sample (orange). Line graph: mean ± s.e.m. from ≥8 technical replicates. All animal experiments were approved by the responsible regulatory agencies (Regierung von Oberbayern).

Source data

Extended Data Fig. 5 Single-channel information from MitoTag/Gfap:Cre/Thy1:mitoRFP image represented in Fig. 4d.

Cortex from MitoTag/Gfap:Cre/Thy1:mitoRFP animals used as tissue source in the ‘spike-in’ experiment. a, Merged image shown in Fig. 4d and corresponding single channels. b, Detail from a. Scale bar, 20 µm for a, 10 µm for b.

Supplementary information

Reporting Summary

Supplementary Video 1

Description of how to perform Steps 17–20 corresponding to plasma membrane permeabilization using nitrogen cavitation.

Source data

Source Data

Unprocessed western blots and statistical source data for Figs. 4b,c,e,f and 5a–e and Extended Data Fig. 4b.

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de Mello, N.P., Fecher, C., Pastor, A.M. et al. Ex vivo immunocapture and functional characterization of cell-type-specific mitochondria using MitoTag mice. Nat Protoc 18, 2181–2220 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41596-023-00831-w

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