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 (****).