Cholesterol has important functions in the organization of membrane structure and

Cholesterol has important functions in the organization of membrane structure and this may be mediated via the formation of cholesterol-rich liquid-ordered membrane microdomains often referred to as lipid rafts. (Minogue et al. 2010 HRP-linked cholera toxin B subunit was purchased from Sigma-Aldrich UK. Sucrose was obtained from VWR International Ltd UK. Total protease inhibitor tablets were purchased from Roche Ltd UK. All other reagents were from Sigma-Aldrich UK. Cell culture Cos-7 cells obtained from the European Collection of Cell Cultures operated by General public Health England were managed at 37 °C in a humidified incubator at 10% AS-604850 CO2. Cells were cultured in Dulbecco’s Modified Eagle’s Medium (DMEM) supplemented with Glutamax 10 fetal calf serum 50 i.u./mL penicillin and 50 μg/mL streptomycin. Rabbit Polyclonal to SGOL1. Cell monolayers were produced to confluency in 10 cm tissue culture dishes. Typically four confluent plates of cells were used in each subcellular fractionation experiment. Subcellular fractionation by sucrose density gradient centrifugation A buoyant subcellular portion enriched for TGN and endosomal membranes was prepared according to our previously published method (Minogue et al. 2010 Waugh et al. 2006 Confluent cell monolayers were washed twice in ice-cold phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) pH 7.4 and scraped into 2 mL of homogenization buffer (Tris-HCl 10 mM EGTA 1 mM EDTA 1 mM sucrose 250 mM as well as Complete? protease inhibitors 7 pH.4). Post-nuclear supernatants had been made by Dounce homogenization from the cells suspended in homogenization buffer accompanied by centrifugation at 1 0 g at 4 °C for 2 min to pellet nuclei and unbroken cells. Cellular organelles had been separated by equilibrium thickness gradient centrifugation by right away ultracentrifugation on the 12 mL 10 w/v sucrose thickness gradient as previously defined (Waugh et al. 2003 Waugh et al. 2003 Waugh et al. 2006 Using this process a buoyant TGN-endosomal enriched membrane small percentage regularly banded in gradient fractions 9 and 10 and was gathered as defined before (Waugh et al. 2003 Waugh et al. 2006 AS-604850 Refractometry to measure membrane thickness The refractive index of every membrane small percentage was determined utilizing a AS-604850 Leica AR200 digital refractometer. Refractive index beliefs had been then changed into sucrose densities using Blix desks (Dawson et al. 1986 and linear regression completed using GraphPad Prism software program. Membrane floatation assay to gauge the equilibrium buoyant thickness of membrane vesicles This assay once was defined by us (Minogue et al. 2010 Quickly 400 μL of cyclodextrin (20 mM) dissolved in drinking water was put into an equal level of TGN/endosomal membranes on glaciers for 10 min to provide a cyclodextrin focus of 10 mM. Then 200 μL of sodium carbonate (0.5 M pH 11.0) was added to a final concentration of 50 mM inside a 1 mL sample. The carbonate-treated membranes were probe-sonicated on snow using a VibraCell probe sonicator from Sonics & Materials Inc. USA at amplitude establishing 40 in pulsed mode for 3 × 2 s bursts. To the 1 mL sonicated membrane samples 3 mL of 53% w/v sucrose in Tris-HCl 10 mM EDTA 1 mM and EGTA 1 mM pH 7.4 was added to form 4 mL of sample in 40% w/v sucrose and a sodium carbonate concentration of 12.5 mM and where applicable a cyclodextrin concentration of 2 mM. A discontinuous sucrose gradient was created inside a 12 mL polycarbonate tube by overlaying the 40% sucrose coating with 4 mL 35% w/v and 4 mL 5% w/v sucrose in Tris-HCl 10 mM EDTA 1 mM and EGTA 1 mM pH 7.4. The gradient was centrifuged over night at 185 0 g at 4 °C inside a Beckman LE-80K ultracentrifuge and AS-604850 12 × 1 mL fractions were harvested beginning at the top of the tube. Immunoblotting of sucrose denseness gradient fractions The protein content of equivalent volume aliquots of each denseness gradient portion was separated by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) transferred to PVDF membranes and probed with antibodies directed against proteins of interest. Western blots were visualized by chemiluminescence and bands were quantified from scanned X-ray films using image analysis software in Adobe Photoshop CS4. Measurements of membrane lipid levels The cholesterol content of equal volume membrane fractions was assayed using the Amplex reddish cholesterol assay kit (Molecular Probes). The use of this assay AS-604850 to measure membrane cholesterol mass has been previously validated.