Bio421

Expt 4: Luciferase Gene Expression

Day 1Splitting Cells

Preparation of Cells

1. Pour the media off the flask into the waste container in the hood.

2. Rinse the cells with 3 ml of PBS.

3. Place 2 ml of Trypsin/EDTA onto the cells and incubate at 37C until the cells detach from the flask.

4. Add 2 ml of media and place the cell suspension in a sterile 15 ml conical tube.

5. Centrifuge the cells at 1000 rpm for 2 minutes.

6. Remove the supernatant and resuspend the cells in 5 ml of fresh media.

7. Add 5 ml of fresh media to a 60 mm plate

8. Prepare 1 plate with0.5 ml of the cell suspension.

9. Swirl in a figure “8” and place in the incubator.

Day 4 (Wednesday or Thursday)

Transfection of human colorectal carcinoma cells, HCT-116 cells.

1. Prepare 1 mixture of DNA/FuGene according to the table below. Mix the solution by pipetting one time.

Amount of Media (ul) / Amount DNA (ul) / Amount of FuGene (ul)
Group 1 / 100 / 5.0 / 10
Group 2 / 100 / 5.0 / 20
Group 3 / 100 / 10.0 / 20
Group 4 / 100 / 10.0 / 30
Group 5 / 100 / 10.0 / 40
Group 6 / 100 / 20.0 / 60

2.Incubate for 10 minutes at room temperature..

3. Add the DNA-lipid complexes dropwise to the cells and carefully swirl the plate in a figure “8”

4. Incubate the cells 1 or 2 days at 37C.

Bio421

Expt 4: Luciferase Gene Expression

Day 3 (Friday)

Collection and Splitting of Cells

1. Remove the old media and wash with 2 ml of PBS

2. Add 2 ml of Trypsin and incubate at 37C until the cells detach

3. Add 3 ml of ml of media

4. Place 4 ml of the cell suspension into a 15 ml conical tube and 1ml of cell suspension into another 15 ml conical tube.

5. Centrifuge at 1000 X g for 2 minutes.

6. Pour off the supernatents

7. Store the 4 ml cell pellet at -80C.

8. Resuspend the 1 ml cell pellet in 5 ml of media.

9. Put the 5 ml cell suspension into the new plate.

10. Place the new plate in the 37C incubator.

Bio421

Expt 4: Luciferase Gene Expression

Day 4 (Monday or Tuesday)

Preparation of Cell Pellets

1. Resuspend cell pellets in 3 ml of PBS. Centrifuge for 2 minutes at 1K rpm

2. Remove the PBS and replace with 1 ml of PLB.

3. Resuspend the cell pellet and transfer to a microfuge tube.

4. Place on ice.

Preparation of Cells from plates

1. Rinse the plate with 3ml of PBS.

2. Remove the PBS and add 3 ml of Trypsin/EDTA.

3. Incubate at 37C until the cells are detaching from the bottom of the plate (5-10min)

4. Add 7 ml of PBS and transfer the cell suspension to a 15ml conical tube.

5. Centrifuge for 2 minutes at 1K rpm

6. Remove the PBS and replace with 1 ml of PLB.

7. Resuspend the cell pellet and transfer to a microfuge tube.

8. Place on ice.

9. Take both sets of cells and place them in the -70C freezer for 10 minutes.

10. Thaw the cells completely and pipette the samples 10 times.

11. Repeat this freeze-thaw procedure.

Lucfierase Assay

1. Place 100 ul of LAR II solution in a new microfuge tube.

2. Add 20 ul of cell lysate to the tube and mix by pipetting.

3. Read the samples in the luminometer and record the results.