Methods
Cell culture. RD (PAX3:FOXO1 -negative; NRAS Q61H)and Rh30 (PAX3:FOXO1 -positive) cells were maintained in
Dulbecco’s modified Eagle’s medium (DMEM; Thermo Fisher Scientific)
supplemented with 20% fetal bovine Serum (FBS; Thermo Fisher
Scientific) (Rh30) cells and 10% FBS (RD), respectively. 1%
Penicillin/Streptomycin (Thermo Fisher Scientific) was added to the
medium for both cell lines. Cells were cultured at 37°C in a 5%
CO2 atmosphere containing incubator. The identity of the
cell lines was confirmed by short tandem repeat (STR) fingerprinting by
Eurofins
Zebrafish husbandry. Zebrafish were maintained and bred under
standard conditions at the Developmental Biology, Institute for Biology
I, University of Freiburg, as approved by Regierungspräsidium Freiburg.
Experiments were conducted only during the first 120 hours
post-fertilization. The following fish lines were used for the
experiments: nacre (mitfa mutant, deficient in body
pigment cells) and sandy (also known sdy ;tyrosinase mutant, deficient in melanin dark pigment). All
experiments were carried out in accordance with German laws for animal
care.
Optimization of environmental temperatures. Zebrafish embryos
were maintained at three different temperature levels from 3 to 120
hours post fertilization (hpf). The control group (n=48) was
maintained at 28.5°C, which is considered the standard temperature for
maintenance of zebrafish embryos. Experimental group 1 (n=48) was kept
at 33°C from 3 to 48 hpf, followed by a rise in environmental
temperatures to 35°C until 120 hpf. The temperature for experimental
group 2 (n=48) was maintained at 35°C from 3 to 120 hpf. Embryos were
microscopically observed each day and classified as “abnormal” if they
showed any visible signs of damage such as pericardial edema, scoliosis,
or absence of heartbeats at 72 hpf.
To examine the effects of different environmental temperatures on RMS
growth in vitro , RD and Rh30 cells were plated in 96-well plates
at a density of 500 cells per well. Starting at the time of plating,
cells were maintained at 33°C for two days, followed by a temperature
rise to 35°C until day 5, analogous to the zebrafish experiment
described above. For comparison, control cells were maintained at 37°C
from the time of plating until day 5. Cell counts were determined on the
day of plating as well as 2, 4 and 5 days after plating using a
hematocytometer (4 replicates per day and condition). Mean cell numbers
on day 5 were tested for statistical significance by Students t-tests.
Transplantation procedure. RMS cells at 80% confluence were
washed in PBS followed by incubation in staining-solution comprised of
10 µL lipophilic DiI (Thermo Fisher Scientific, V22885) in 2ml serum
free DMEM for 20 minutes at 37°C. The freshly stained RMS cells then
were washed twice in PBS to remove staining remnants, spun down and
resuspended in 1 ml of PBS supplemented with 2% FBS and 2% PVP360 to
prevent the cells from clotting in the injection capillaries. The cells
were stored on ice until transplantation. Immediately before
transplantation, cells were spun down and resuspended to a final
concentration of ~ 1x106 / 100µL
1µL of the cell suspension was aspirated into a 100µM-diameter pulled
borosilicate glass needle without filament (Science Products GmbH),
using an oil-based microinjector (L.S. Starrett). The 3 hours-old
zebrafish embryos were lined into injection molds made from agarose gel.
Approximately 100 cells per embryo were transplanted into the blastoderm
of 1000-cell to high stage zebrafish embryos. Transplanted embryos then
were transferred into petri dishes containing E3 medium and kept at
33°C. One hour after transplantation embryos were screened for
successful transplantation by fluorescence microscopy to detect the
DiI-labeled xenografts.
Although transplantation and screening were performed at room
temperature (24-28°C), development of embryos implanted with RMS cells
and unmanipulated embryos at 28.5°C progressed without notable
differences. All embryos were euthanized before exceeding 120 hpf.
Xenograft imaging and analysis. Embryos were anesthetized with
0.168 mg tricaine/ml E3 medium at 24, 72 and 120 hpf and placed in
lateral position. Serial images were taken with Zeiss ZEN-Software using
an Axio Examiner D1 (Zeiss) at 5X magnification. The cross-sectional
area of the xenografts in vivo was measured sequentially at 24,
72 and 120 hpf to analyze changes in the size of the xenotransplants
over time. For each timepoint, cross-sectional areas of the xenografts
were measured using FIJI software. Xenografts were outlined using the
default algorithm of the FIJI software; the z-plane with the largest
cross-sectional surface area was considered for analyses. To make
changes in tumor size directly comparable, the standardized
cross-sectional area (SCSA) was calculated for each timepoint by
dividing the cross-sectional area measured at any given timepoint (24,
72, 120 hpf) by the value measured at 24 hpf.
Histology. Larvae were euthanized in tricaine at 72-120 hpf
followed by fixation in 4% PFA overnight. Fixed embryos then were
embedded in paraffin, sectioned into 5µM thick slices, and stained with
Hematoxylin and Eosin, following standard staining procedures .
Toxicity screening. 24 hours-old embryos were manually
dechorionated and transferred to a 96-well plate containing E3 medium
(one embryo per well). Vincristine, dactinomycin and trametinib were
added to the wells in increasing concentrations as indicated in Figure
3A-C. Control embryos were maintained in standard E3 medium without
exposure to any chemicals. Embryos in the carrier group were exposed to
carrier solution only using the same carrier volume that was necessary
to add the highest drug concentration tested. Embryos were
microscopically analyzed at 120 hpf for visible damage. If they showed
signs of toxicity such as pericardial edema, scoliosis, or absence of
heartbeats at 72 hpf, or if they were already dead, the embryos were
classified as “did not survive”. Each experimental group contained 16
embryos per experiment; the experiment was repeated 3 times. Maximum
tolerated concentrations of each drug were determined based on
differences in the survival rates of embryos exposed to increasing drug
concentrations.
Testing the effects of candidate drugs on RMS-xenografts in
zebrafish embryos. For drug testing experiments, approximately 100
DiI-labeled RD cells were transplanted into zebrafish embryos at the
1k-cell stage (3hpf). One hour after the transplantation procedure,
embryos were inspected for successful transplantation via fluorescence
microscopy. The embryos were then transferred to a 24-well plate
containing E3 and maintained at 33°C until they reached 48 hpf, followed
by a temperature rise to 35°C until 120 hpf. Chemicals were added to the
E3-medium at 24 hpf. The following concentrations were tested:
vincristine at 2 and 20 µM; dactinomycin at 0.1 and 1 µM; trametinib at
5 and 50 nM. Furthermore, embryos were exposed to 2µM vincristine and
0.1µM dactinomycin in combination.
To measure the effects of vincristine and dactinomycin on RD xenograftsnacre embryos were used, whereas the effects of Trametinib on
RD-xenografts were tested in transplanted sdy embryos, due to
availability of the respective fish lines.
Observations from animals exposed to the same chemicals in 9 independent
experiments were pooled and compared to the control group, which
consisted of 30 nacre embryos and 15 sdy embryos,
respectively, from 9 independent experiments. The following number of
xenograft-bearing embryos were considered for analyses, after “dead or
disformed” ones were removed from the experiments: 17 embryos exposed
to 2 µM vincristine, 30 exposed to 20 µM vincristine, 16 to 0,1 µM
dactinomycin, 27 to 1 µM dactinomycin, 16 to 2 µM vincristine and 0,1 µM
dactinomycin, 11 to 5 nM trametinib, 21 to 50 nM trametinib and 17 to 10
µl DMSO.
Statistical Analysis. Experiments were analyzed using Prism
GraphPad 9.1.2. All Experiments with two experimental groups were
analyzed using the Student’s t-test, whereas experiments with more than
two groups were analyzed using ANOVA followed by Turkey´s multiple
comparisons test. Differences were considered significant whenp -Value was below 0.05. P -Values were illustrated in
figures using asterisks: p<0.05 (*), p<0.005 (**),
p<0.0005 (***), p<0.00005 (****).