Intraocular liver spheroids for non-invasive high-resolution in vivo monitoring of liver cell function.

Longitudinal monitoring of liver function in vivo is hindered by the lack of high-resolution non-invasive imaging techniques. Using the anterior chamber of the mouse eye as a transplantation site, we have established a platform for longitudinal in vivo imaging of liver spheroids at cellular resolution. Transplanted liver spheroids engraft on the iris, become vascularized and innervated, retain hepatocyte-specific and liver-like features and can be studied by in vivo confocal microscopy. Employing fluorescent probes administered intravenously or spheroids formed from reporter mice, we showcase the potential use of this platform for monitoring hepatocyte cell cycle activity, bile secretion and lipoprotein uptake. Moreover, we show that hepatic lipid accumulation during diet-induced hepatosteatosis is mirrored in intraocular in vivo grafts. Here, we show a new technology which provides a crucial and unique tool to study liver physiology and disease progression in pre-clinical and basic research.

FUCCI-Based Live Imaging Platform Reveals Cell Cycle Dynamics and Identifies Pro-proliferative Compounds in Human iPSC-Derived Cardiomyocytes.

One of the major goals in cardiac regeneration research is to replace lost ventricular tissue with new cardiomyocytes. However, cardiomyocyte proliferation drops to low levels in neonatal hearts and is no longer efficient in compensating for the loss of functional myocardium in heart disease. We generated a human induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived cardiomyocyte-specific cell cycle indicator system (TNNT2-FUCCI) to characterize regular and aberrant cardiomyocyte cycle dynamics. We visualized cell cycle progression in TNNT2-FUCCI and found G2 cycle arrest in endoreplicating cardiomyocytes. Moreover, we devised a live-cell compound screening platform to identify pro-proliferative drug candidates. We found that the alpha-adrenergic receptor agonist clonidine induced cardiomyocyte proliferation in vitro and increased cardiomyocyte cell cycle entry in neonatal mice. In conclusion, the TNNT2-FUCCI system is a versatile tool to characterize cardiomyocyte cell cycle dynamics and identify pro-proliferative candidates with regenerative potential in the mammalian heart.

Identification and characterization of distinct cell cycle stages in cardiomyocytes using the FUCCI transgenic system.

Understanding the regulatory mechanism by which cardiomyocyte proliferation transitions to endoreplication and cell cycle arrest during the neonatal period is crucial for identifying proproliferative factors and developing regenerative therapies. We used a transgenic mouse model based on the fluorescent ubiquitination-based cell cycle indicator (FUCCI) system to isolate and characterize cycling cardiomyocytes at different cell cycle stages at a single-cell resolution. Single-cell transcriptome analysis of cycling and noncycling cardiomyocytes was performed at postnatal days 0 (P0) and 7 (P7). The FUCCI system proved to be efficient for the identification of cycling cardiomyocytes with the highest mitotic activity at birth, followed by a gradual decline in the number of cycling and mitotic cardiomyocytes during the neonatal period. Cardiomyocytes showed premature cell cycle exit at G1/S shortly after birth and delayed G1/S progression during endoreplication at P7. Single-cell RNA-seq confirmed previously described signaling pathways involved in cardiomyocyte proliferation (Erbb2 and Hippo/YAP), and maturation-related transcriptional changes during postnatal development, including the metabolic switch from glycolysis to fatty acid oxidation in cardiomyocytes. Importantly, we generated transcriptional profiles specific to cell division and endoreplication in cardiomyocytes at different developmental stages that may facilitate the identification of genes important for adult cardiomyocyte proliferation and heart regeneration. In conclusion, the FUCCI mouse provides a valuable system to study cardiomyocyte cell cycle activity at single cell resolution that can help to decipher the switch from cardiomyocyte proliferation to endoreplication, and to revert this process to facilitate endogenous repair.

Long-range chromatin interactions at the mouse Igf2/H19 locus reveal a novel paternally expressed long non-coding RNA.

Parental genomic imprinting at the Igf2/H19 locus is controlled by a methylation-sensitive CTCF insulator that prevents the access of downstream enhancers to the Igf2 gene on the maternal chromosome. However, on the paternal chromosome, it remains unclear whether long-range interactions with the enhancers are restricted to the Igf2 promoters or whether they encompass the entire gene body. Here, using the quantitative chromosome conformation capture assay, we show that, in the mouse liver, the endodermal enhancers have low contact frequencies with the Igf2 promoters but display, on the paternal chromosome, strong interactions with the intragenic differentially methylated regions 1 and 2. Interestingly, we found that enhancers also interact with a so-far poorly characterized intergenic region of the locus that produces a novel imprinted long non-coding transcript that we named the paternally expressed Igf2/H19 intergenic transcript (PIHit) RNA. PIHit is expressed exclusively from the paternal chromosome, contains a novel discrete differentially methylated region in a highly conserved sequence and, surprisingly, does not require an intact ICR/H19 gene region for its imprinting. Altogether, our data reveal a novel imprinted domain in the Igf2/H19 locus and lead us to propose a model for chromatin folding of this locus on the paternal chromosome.