Warren Alpert Medical School, Brown University , Providence, Rhode Island 02903, United States.
Nano Lett. 2017 Oct 11;17(10):6131-6139. doi: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.7b02716. Epub 2017 Oct 2.
To decipher the molecular mechanisms of biological function, it is critical to map the molecular composition of individual cells or even more importantly tissue samples in the context of their biological environment in situ. Immunofluorescence (IF) provides specific labeling for molecular profiling. However, conventional IF methods have finite multiplexing capabilities due to spectral overlap of the fluorophores. Various sequential imaging methods have been developed to circumvent this spectral limit but are not widely adopted due to the common limitation of requiring multirounds of slow (typically over 2 h at room temperature to overnight at 4 °C in practice) immunostaining. We present here a practical and robust method, which we call DNA Exchange Imaging (DEI), for rapid in situ spectrally unlimited multiplexing. This technique overcomes speed restrictions by allowing for single-round immunostaining with DNA-barcoded antibodies, followed by rapid (less than 10 min) buffer exchange of fluorophore-bearing DNA imager strands. The programmability of DEI allows us to apply it to diverse microscopy platforms (with Exchange Confocal, Exchange-SIM, Exchange-STED, and Exchange-PAINT demonstrated here) at multiple desired resolution scales (from ∼300 nm down to sub-20 nm). We optimized and validated the use of DEI in complex biological samples, including primary neuron cultures and tissue sections. These results collectively suggest DNA exchange as a versatile, practical platform for rapid, highly multiplexed in situ imaging, potentially enabling new applications ranging from basic science, to drug discovery, and to clinical pathology.
为了解析生物功能的分子机制,关键是要在其生物环境原位的情况下,对单个细胞甚至更重要的组织样本的分子组成进行测绘。免疫荧光(IF)提供了分子分析的特异性标记。然而,由于荧光团的光谱重叠,传统的 IF 方法的多重标记能力有限。已经开发了各种连续成像方法来规避这种光谱限制,但由于通常需要多轮缓慢的免疫染色(在室温下通常需要 2 小时以上,在 4°C 下过夜)的常见限制,因此并未广泛采用。我们在这里提出了一种实用且强大的方法,称为 DNA 交换成像(DEI),用于快速原位无限制的多重标记。该技术通过允许使用带 DNA 条形码的抗体进行单轮免疫染色来克服速度限制,然后快速(少于 10 分钟)进行带有荧光团的 DNA 成像链的缓冲液交换。DEI 的可编程性使我们能够将其应用于多种显微镜平台(此处展示了 Exchange Confocal、Exchange-SIM、Exchange-STED 和 Exchange-PAINT)和多个所需的分辨率尺度(从约 300nm 到亚 20nm)。我们优化并验证了 DEI 在复杂生物样本中的使用,包括原代神经元培养物和组织切片。这些结果共同表明,DNA 交换是一种用于快速、高多重原位成像的多功能、实用平台,可能为从基础科学到药物发现再到临床病理学的新应用提供可能。