NIH 3T3 mouse fibroblast cells (ATCCRCRL-1658) were maintained in Dulbecco’s modification of Eagle’s medium (
DMEM, with 4.5 g/l glucose, L-glutamine & sodium pyruvate, Corning) with
fetal bovine serum (FBS, 10% v/v, Biowest) and
Penicillin/Streptomycin (100 U/mL, Roche Diagnostics GmbH). Cells were cultured on 10 cm sterile plates in 37°C, in humidified a chamber with 5% CO
2. Lipofectamine 2000 (Invitrogen) was used to transfect cells (at 70% confluence, one day after seeding) according to manufacturer’s protocol. 10 μg of plasmid DNA (4 variants of shRNA carrying plasmids, OriGene TL501619) DNA was used to transfect one plate. The medium was replaced 6 hours after transfection with a standard one. 3 days after transfection cells were washed twice with cold PBS (137 mM NaCl, 7.97 mM Na
2HPO
4 × 12 H
2O, 2.68 mM KCl, 1.47 mM KH
2PO
4), detached in PBS and moved to a 1.5 ml tube. After centrifugation the cell pellet was lysed in 1 ml of cold RIPA buffer (50 mM Tris-HCl pH7.4, 1% NP-40, 0.5% Na-deoxycholate, 0.1% SDS, 150 mM NaCl, 2 mM EDTA, 50 mM NaF) with freshly added protease (
cOmplete ULTRA tablets, EDTA-free, Roche Diagnostics GmbH) and phosphatase inhibitors (PMSF 1mM, Na
3VO
4 0.2mM). The protein isolate was separated from cell debris by centrifugation (15 min, 14000g, 4°C) and stored at -20°C.
Olejniczak I., Ripperger J.A., Sandrelli F., Schnell A., Mansencal-Strittmatter L., Wendrich K., Hui K.Y., Brenna A., Ben Fredj N, & Albrecht U. (2021). Light affects behavioral despair involving the clock gene Period 1. PLoS Genetics, 17(7), e1009625.