Olga Ornatsky

Imaging Mass Cytometry (IMC) is an expansion of mass cytometry, but rather than analyzing single cells in suspension, it uses laser ablation to generate plumes of particles that are carried to the mass cytometer by a stream of inert gas. Images reconstructed from tissue sections scanned by IMC have a resolution comparable to light microscopy, with the high content of mass cytometry enabled through the use of isotopically labeled probes and ICP-MS detection. Importantly, IMC can be performed on paraffin-embedded tissue sections, so can be applied to the retrospective analysis of patient cohorts whose outcome is known, and eventually to personalized medicine. Since the original description in 2014, IMC has evolved rapidly into a commercial instrument of unprecedented power for the analysis of histological sections. In this Review, we discuss the underlying principles of this new technology, and outline emerging applications of IMC in the analysis of normal and pathological tissues. © ...

Molecular chaperones and cytosolic stress proteins are actively involved in the stabilization, import and refolding of precursor proteins into mitochondria. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the relationship between mitochondrial content under steady-state conditions, and during the induction of organelle biogenesis, with the expression of stress proteins and mitochondrial chaperonins. A comparison of steady-state levels of mitochondrial enzyme activity [cytochrome c oxidase (CYTOX)] with chaperonin levels [the heat-shock protein HSP60, the glucose-regulated protein GRP75 (mtHSP70)] in striated muscles possessing a wide range of oxidative capacities revealed a proportional expression between the two. This relationship was disrupted by chronic contractile activity brought about by 10 days of 10 Hz stimulation of the tibialis anterior (TA) muscle, which induced 2.4-fold increases in CYTOX activity, but 3.2- and 9.3-fold increases in HSP60 and GRP75 respectively. The ind...

The control of enzyme activity by reversible phosphorylation and the role of protein kinases in signal transduction illustrate well the pivotal role of protein phosphorylation in cell regulation. There are numerous examples of the role of protein kinases and ...

In this article we demonstrate that hybrid nanogels can be prepared by encapsulation of reactive nanoparticles (NPs) directly during nanogel synthesis. Nanogels investigated in present study consist of poly(N-vinylcaprolactam-co-(2-acetoacetoxyethyl) methacrylate) copolymer. ...

Existing literature provides an equivocal picture of the behavior of mitochondrial synthesis during the time course of cardiac hypertrophy. Therefore, we examined the effect of cardiac hypertrophy on mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase (CYTOX) activity, the content of CYTOX subunit VIc mRNA, and the expression of molecular chaperones. Adult male Sprague-Dawley rats were subjected to either abdominal aortic constriction to induce pressure overload (PO) or a sham operation (SH). Animals were studied 2, 4, 7, 14, 21, or 28 days after surgery. Aortic constriction resulted in a significant evaluation in arterial pressure by 4 days after surgery. Significant (p < 0.05) hypertrophy was attained by 4 days and was stabilized at 37% between 7 and 28 days. CYTOX activity (U/g) did not differ significantly between PO and SH animals at either early (< 7 days) or later time points, indicating that mitochondrial content increased in proportion to adaptive cellular hypertrophic growth. The concentration of the molecular chaperones HSP60 and GRP75 involved in mitochondrial protein import did not change with PO treatment. The levels of mRNAs encoding both CYTOX subunit VIc and HSP60 remained constant, in proportion to cardiac growth. This suggests that the accelerated synthesis of CYTOX and HSP60 during cardiac hypertrophy is regulated transcriptionally. The data help to resolve the controversy in the literature regarding mitochondrial biogenesis during moderate, stable cardiac hypertrophy, and they indirectly indicate that proportional mitochondrial synthesis relative to cellular hypertrophy is regulated at the transcriptional level.

Conventional gene expression profiling relies on using fluorescent detection of hybridized probes. Physical characteristics of fluorophores impose limitations on achieving a highly multiplex gene analysis of single cells. Our work demonstrates the feasibility of using metal-tagged in situ hybridization for mRNA detection by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). ICP-MS as an analytical detector has a number of unique and relevant properties: 1) metals and their stable isotopes generate non-overlapping distinct signals that can be detected simultaneously; 2) these signals can be measured over a wide dynamic range; 3) ICP-MS is quantitative and very sensitive. We used commercial antibodies conjugated to europium (Eu) and gold together with biotinylated oligonucleotide probes reacted with terbium-labeled streptavidin to demonstrate simultaneous mRNA and protein detection by ICP-MS in leukemia cells.

A subtractive hybridization and cloning strategy was used to identify genes that are up-regulated in regenerating compared with normal skeletal muscle. The gastrocnemius muscle of CD1 mice was injected with a myotoxic agent (BaCl2). A cDNA library was constructed from the regenerating muscle, and was screened with subtracted probes enriched in genes up-regulated during regeneration. Cofilin and vimentin cDNA clones were isolated. Both cofilin and vimentin were demonstrated to be overexpressed in regenerating compared with non-regenerating muscle (17-fold and 19-fold induction respectively). Cofilin and vimentin mRNAs also exhibited an increased expression in C2C12 myoblasts and a decreased expression in differentiated myotubes. Analysis of the regeneration-induced vimentin enhancer/promoter region revealed a consensus binding site for the myocyte enhancer factor 2 (MEF2) transcription factors. Electrophoretic mobility-shift assays and in vivo reporter assays revealed that MEF2 DNA-b...

Conventional gene expression profiling relies on using fluorescent detection of hybridized probes. Physical characteristics of fluorophores impose limitations on achieving a highly multiplex gene analysis of single cells. Our work demonstrates the feasibility of using metal-tagged in situ hybridization for mRNA detection by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). ICP-MS as an analytical detector has a number of unique and relevant properties: 1) metals and their stable isotopes generate non-overlapping distinct signals that can be detected simultaneously; 2) these signals can be measured over a wide dynamic range; 3) ICP-MS is quantitative and very sensitive. We used commercial antibodies conjugated to europium (Eu) and gold together with biotinylated oligonucleotide probes reacted with terbium-labeled streptavidin to demonstrate simultaneous mRNA and protein detection by ICP-MS in leukemia cells.

An in-depth study of the reproducibility of data acquired for comparative proteomics analysis using a prototype two-stage heated laminar flow chamber fitted to a commercial high-performance liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC/MS/MS) instrument was undertaken. The study is based on 24 replicate samples from four independent membrane preparations derived from two matched breast cancer cell lines. Variation and reproducibility in the data were evaluated at several levels highlighting the relative efficiency and variability of the acquisition routines used. Specifically, variation in the number and relative intensities of chromatographic peaks eluted from the LC column, precursor ion selection and sequence identification were evaluated. On average, approximately 6500 chromatographic peaks were generated for each acquisition with a corresponding coefficient of variance (CV) of less than 20%. Precursor ion selection and sequence identification averaged 1380 and 780 events per acquisition sample, respectively, with corresponding CVs of less than 10% for each. The reproducibility in the precursor ion selection was typically better than 60% between similar replicates. Using protein and peptide internal standards, it was found that the CV in retention time across the gradient between two acquisition pairs was typically less than 5%, whereas the average intensity ratio was 1.0 (expected) with a CV approaching 20%. An evaluation of the intensity ratios calculated from endogenous peptide sequences, identified across the acquisition set, indicated a CV of approximately 30%. Similarly, the CV associated with the top 1000 peptides indicated a mean and median of 28.4 and 26.95%. For a given acquisition pair it was also found that approximately 11% of the chromatographic peaks eluting from the column were linked to a sequence or identified. For these experiments, less than 10% of the peak pairs had absolute ratios greater than 2.0 and of those only approximately 10% had sequences linked to them. For each matched acquisition set on average 406 proteins were identified with a CV of less than 10%. Of the proteins that were identified approximately 30% had at least one predicted trans-membrane domain, indicating a four-fold increase over a crude homogenate sample with only minor enrichment. During these experiments it was found that the interface did not significantly alter the relative charge state distribution of ions, nor did it introduce significant interference from background ions. The interface was capable of 24-hour acquisition cycles.

There is a great need in cell biology for the simultaneous detection of many intracellular and extracellular proteins within single cells. Current optical methods based on fluorescence activated flow cytometry are difficult to multiplex. We have developed a novel application of ICP-MS-linked metal-tagged immunophenotyping which has great potential for highly multiplexed proteomic analysis. Expression of intracellular oncogenic kinase BCR/Abl, myeloid cell surface antigen CD33, human stem cell factor receptor c-Kit and integrin receptor VLA-4 were investigated using model human leukemia cell lines. Antigens to which specific antibodies are available and are distinguishably tagged can be determined simultaneously, or multiplexed. Four commercially available tags (Au, Sm, Eu, and Tb) conjugated to secondary antibodies enable a 4-plex assay assuming that the primary antibodies are not cross-reactive. Results obtained by ICP-MS were compared with data from FACS. ICP-MS as an analytical detector possesses several advantages that enhance the performance of immunoassays, which are discussed in detail. Although multiplexing using metal-conjugated reagents is in a very early stage of research and feasibility studies, it is already apparent that more than four antigens could be accurately detected simultaneously using the ICP-MS instrument.