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From the Department of Pathology and Immunology and The Alvin J. Siteman Cancer Center,
*
Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri; Affymetrix Inc.,
Santa Clara, California; and Arcturus,
Mountain View, California
| Abstract |
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| Introduction |
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In an effort to streamline and standardize a process for routinely generating biotin-labeled hybridization targets from limiting cell sources (such as LCM), we have used a commercially available reagent kit. In this report, we compare data generated using this reagent system to that obtained from previously reported, standard protocols. Starting with as little as 10 nanograms of total RNA and using two rounds of linear amplification, a sufficient quantity of labeled target is generated for microarray hybridization. We demonstrate that this procedure is reproducible and results in sensitivity comparable to standard methodologies that routinely employ 200 to 1000 times greater input RNA. The method is easy to use, and reproducibility of expression profiles from duplicate dissections of identical cell populations suggests that the method is reliable for routine microgenomics, addressing complex genomic questions from limiting cell sources.
| Materials and Methods |
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Total RNA
Total RNA from human heart and human tumor cell line G-401 was obtained from Ambion (Austin, TX). Total RNA from the human endometrial adenocarcinoma cell line An3CA (American Type Culture Collection (ATCC), HTB-111) was isolated using an affinity resin spin column following the manufacturers recommendations (RNeasy, Qiagen, Chatsworth, CA). Breast tissue RNA was isolated using Trizol reagent (Invitrogen, Carlsbad, CA) followed by further purification with the RNeasy RNA isolation system. RNA was qualitatively assessed by agarose gel electrophoresis or RNA LabChip (Agilent, Palo Alto, CA), quantified by UV absorbance, and diluted to the appropriate working concentration. For microdissected tissue samples, several LCM-caps were pooled into a single tube containing 200 µl of denaturing buffer (GITC) and 1.6 µl of 2-mercaptoethanol (BME). Total RNA was then extracted using a modified protocol of the Stratagene RNA microisolation kit (Stratagene, La Jolla, CA) as previously described.5
The total RNA obtained from each LCM-dissected tissue was resuspended in 10 µl of Rnase-free water. To assess the quality and concentration of the total RNA, 1 µl was directly analyzed on an RNA LabChip (Agilent) following the manufacturers instructions.
Target Synthesis
For biotin-labeled, antisense cRNA target ("cRNA") synthesis starting from either 2 µg or 10 µg of total cellular RNA, reactions were performed using one of two protocols.
Standard Protocol
Targets were generated using standard protocols supplied by the manufacturer (Affymetrix Inc., Santa Clara, CA) and as previously described.3
RiboAmp Protocol
Reactions were performed using the RiboAmp RNA amplification kit (Arcturus, Mountain View, CA) following the manufacturers protocol for performing one round of amplification with the following modification. After cDNA synthesis and purification, 8 µl of the resulting cDNA was added to the BioArray High Yield in vitro transcription reaction (see below) to generate biotinylated cRNA.
For target synthesis starting from 10 ng of total RNA or LCM extracted RNA, an initial round of amplification was performed before synthesis of biotin-labeled cRNA using one of two protocols.
Standard Two-Round Protocol
In the first method previously described,4
synthesis of first- and second-strand cDNA was performed using the standard protocol provided by the manufacturer (Affymetrix Inc.). However, instead of proceeding to use the double-stranded cDNA in the biotin-labeled in vitro transcription reaction, the cDNA was resuspended in 8 µl of Rnase-free water and used as a template to transcribe unlabeled RNA using T7 RNA polymerase and the Megascript kit (Ambion). The reaction was incubated for 4 hours at 37°C and the resulting transcribed RNA was purified using RNeasy spin columns (Qiagen). Eluted RNA was precipitated by adding 0.1 volume of 7.5 mol/L ammonium acetate, 0.02 volumes of 5 mg/ml linear acrylamide (Ambion) and 2.5 volumes of 100% ethanol, and resuspended in 10 µl of Rnase-free water. A second round of amplification was initiated by using the in vitro transcribed RNA as template. After annealing RNA with 0.7 µmol/L random hexamers (Pharmacia, Piscataway, NJ) for 10' at 70°C, the mixture was chilled on ice and extended in a 20-µl reaction containing 4 µl of 5X first-strand reaction buffer, 2 µl of 0.1 mol/L dithiothreitol (DTT), 1 µl of 10 mmol/L dNTPs, and 1 µl of Superscript II (Life Technologies, Rockville, MD). Following a 1-hour incubation at 42°C, 1 µl of 2 units/ml of RNase H was added, incubated for 20 minutes at 37°C, and inactivated at 95°C for 5 minutes. The resulting first-strand cDNA was annealed to 100 pmol of HPLC-purified T7T24 primer (GenSet, La Jolla, CA) for 10' at 70°C. Then, second-strand cDNA synthesis was performed by adding 90 µl of Rnase-free water, 30 µl of 5X second-strand reaction buffer, 3 µl of 10 mmol/L dNTPs, 10 units DNA ligase, 40 units DNA polymerase and 2 units of RNase H. After incubating the second-strand cDNA reaction for 2 hours at 16°C, 20 units of T4 DNA polymerase were added, followed by incubation at 16°C for 10'. The second-strand cDNA synthesis was stopped by adding 10 µl of 0.5 mol/L EDTA. Double-stranded cDNA was purified by phenol:chloroform:isoamyl alcohol extraction using phase-lock-gel (Eppendorf, Westbury, NY), precipitated with 0.5 volumes of 7.5 mol/L ammonium acetate, 2 µg of glycogen and 2.5 volumes of 100% ethanol, and resuspended in 22 µl of Rnase-free water.
RiboAmp Two-Round Protocol
In the second method, the RiboAmp RNA amplification kit (Arcturus) was used following the protocol for performing first and second rounds of amplification with the following modification. After the second round of cDNA synthesis and purification, 8 µl of the resulting cDNA was added to the BioArray High Yield in vitro transcription reaction (see below) to generate biotinylated cRNA.
Biotin-Labeled cRNA Transcription and Microarray Hybridization
Biotinylated cRNA target was generated from all cDNAs using the Bioarray High Yield transcription kit (Enzo Biochemical, New York, NY) following the manufacturers protocol. After a 5-hour incubation at 37°C, the final biotin-labeled cRNA product was purified using RNeasy spin columns (Qiagen) and eluted in 40 µl of Rnase-free water. The concentration of biotin-labeled cRNA was determined by UV absorbance. In all cases, 10 micrograms of each biotinylated cRNA preparation was fragmented, assessed by gel electrophoresis, and placed in a hybridization cocktail containing four biotinylated hybridization controls (BioB, BioC, BioD, and Cre) as recommended by the manufacturer. To initially assess cRNA quality, a subset of samples was first hybridized to GeneChip Test3 microarrays as previously described.7
Samples were then hybridized to HU-95Av2 GeneChip arrays for 16 hours. Microarrays were washed and stained using the instruments standard "Eukaryotic GE Wash 2" protocol, using antibody-mediated signal amplification.
Data Analysis
The images from the scanned chips were processed using Microarray Analysis Suite 4.0 (Affymetrix Inc.). Image data from each microarray was individually scaled to an average intensity of 150. Scaled average difference value (SADV) and absolute call (AC) data were exported to flat text files and used for numerical analysis. Raw image data and numerical data sets used for the analysis described in this study are available at http://bioinformatics.wustl.edu.
| Results and Discussion |
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To address the overall method sensitivity, we examined two parameters that reflect signal intensity. Scale factor (SF) is the ratio of a defined target intensity value (in this study, 150) to the average signal intensity of all probe pairs on the microarray. The higher the SF, the lower the overall signal intensity. The number of transcripts detected (% P), is a measure of the cRNA target complexity and reflects not only the intensity of hybridization, but also the number of probe sets that have a detectable, specific hybridization signal. As shown in Table 1
, SF and % P values from targets generated with 2 to 10 µg of RNA using the "Standard (A)" protocol average 1.2 and 54%, respectively. There is no statistical difference (Students t-test, P < 0.05) between SF values from targets generated from the "RiboAmp (B)" versus the "Standard (A)" protocols, but a statistical difference between the total number of transcripts called detected (54% vs. 47%). When the "RiboAmp (B)" versus the "RiboAmp Two-Round (D)" protocols are compared there is a statistically significant difference between the scaling factor (1.3 vs. 3.7) and the percentage of transcripts called detected (51% vs. 38%). However, results after two rounds of amplification are comparable whether the "RiboAmp (D)" or the "Standard (C)" protocols are used. A review of several representative probe pair sets with discrepant detection calls revealed that these differences can be primarily attributed to probe pairs directed at more 5' regions of transcripts whose signal is lost after two rounds of amplification. This observation is consistent with the results obtained from the 3'-specific and 5'-specific signals of control transcripts described above. Complete and selective loss of signal from more 5'-oriented probe pairs, rather than a general diminution of signal across all probe pairs, accounts for lower overall chip signal intensity and correspondingly higher SF. Also, probe pair sets that are more 5'-oriented will have fewer discrete positive probe pair signals and this, in turn, will result in an "A" (non-detected) call from the GeneChip detection algorithm. Given that 200- to 1000-fold less starting RNA is required for the two-round amplification protocol, the modest decrease in performance (in terms of number of transcripts scored detected) seems acceptable. In fact, using the "RiboAmp Two-Round (D)" protocol, it may be advisable to ignore absolute call data and use only signal or fold change calculation data (see below).
We did not perform extensive direct comparisons between one-round amplification methods starting with 2 to 10 micrograms of RNA and two-round amplification methods starting with 10 nanograms of the same RNA. As expected, gene expression correlation between duplicates using the same methodology is higher (r = 0.98 to 0.99) as compared to correlation between duplicates using different methodologies and different amounts of starting material (r = 0.70 to 0.77). We examined several specific transcripts whose relative levels of expression were most discrepant between methods. Transcripts whose levels of expression are most under-represented in the 10-nanogram sample relative to the 10-microgram sample of breast cancer RNA have both high and low level signals in the 10-microgram sample. Conversely, many transcripts with low signal levels in the 10-microgram sample demonstrate very good correlation with signals obtained from the 10-nanogram sample. Transcripts whose level of expression are most over-represented in the 10-nanogram sample relative to the 10-microgram sample were also found to have both high and low level signals in the 10-microgram sample. We also examined the location of probe set features relative to the 3' end of their corresponding transcript for 20 transcripts that demonstrated the highest correlation between methods and 20 transcripts that were the most discrepant between methods. There is no immediately apparent relationship between the location of probe features relative to the 3' end of each transcript and relative change in signal intensity between the two methods. For the individual transcripts examined, neither the absolute level of gene expression nor the probe set feature location were well-correlated to the relative change in signal intensity between the two methods. It should also be emphasized that an appropriate experimental design would seldom try to compare data from mixed methodologies in this way, making the significance of these between-method comparisons less relevant.
Technical reproducibility is an essential requirement for successful microarray experiments and so, to address the reproducibility of the amplification methods used in this study, each target synthesis was performed in duplicate from the same starting RNA. As shown in Table 2
, we examined the number of discrepant absolute calls ("A" vs. "P") between the duplicates. In addition, using the Affymetrix microarray analysis software, we directly compared duplicate arrays to each other and determined the number of genes with expression changes of greater than two-fold. Overall, the percentage of discordant absolute calls (detected, "P" vs. not detected, "A") is higher than the percentage of transcripts that demonstrate a greater than twofold change in expression. This indicates that, as expected, many of the discrepancies between duplicate samples occur in transcripts whose levels of expression are just within or below the level of confident detection. That is, small (less than twofold) differences in signal intensity are sufficient for the algorithm to alternate between scoring these transcripts "A" or "P." Between "Standard (A)" and "RiboAmp (B)" single-round amplification protocols, and between "RiboAmp (A)" and "RiboAmp Two-Round (D)" protocols, there is no statistical difference in the percentage of transcripts with discrepant absolute calls or in fold change values of greater than two (t-test, P < 0.05). This data suggests that technical reproducibility is not compromised by starting with 1000-fold less input RNA and using two rounds of transcript amplification.
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In summary, we have used a commercially available transcript amplification kit to successfully generate biotinylated cRNA targets for hybridization to GeneChip expression microarrays. The protocol may be used with one round of in vitro transcription to generate target from as little as two micrograms of total RNA. Alternatively, two rounds of in vitro transcription may be used to generate target from as little as 10 nanograms of total RNA. Although starting with nanogram quantities of RNA appears to sacrifice some sensitivity (as judged by the total number of transcripts scored as detected, "P"), the method demonstrates comparable reproducibility to existing protocols and performs equally well when directly compared to previously reported methods.5 In addition, the new method is faster and more convenient, and produces higher yields of labeled cRNA target. The applicability of this method toward obtaining expression profile data from microdissected tissue specimens has been demonstrated here and should provide a useful resource for future studies in "microgenomics."
| Acknowledgments |
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| Footnotes |
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Supported in part by grant number 016-99 from the Mary Kay Ash Charitable Foundation (M.A.W.) and the Alvin J. Sikman Cancer Center.
Veronica Luzzi and Mamatha Mahadevappa should be regarded as joint first authors.
Accepted for publication November 12, 2002.
| References |
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