Abstract
Secreted proteins and metabolites are key components of functional homeostasis and organize individual cells into tissues and organisms. Various secreted molecules display altered profiles in health and disease, making them suitable biological markers for disease detection and classification. Their impact on homeostasis and tissues, inducing, controlling, and exerting functionality, also renders secreted proteins valid drug candidates or therapeutic targets. Hence, the study of secreted molecules offers a valid approach towards the understanding and treatment of various diseases, disorders, and syndromes. However, the interest in these products goes far beyond fundamental and biomedical research, with many industries relying on secreted, cellular products. In recent years, the analysis of complex cellular systems at the single-cell level has gained traction. Such a resolved analysis allows the investigation and exploitation of cellular heterogeneity, and the identification of rare active cells and subpopulations of interest. Here, secretion is no exception. This chapter provides an introduction to secretion as well as a discussion and comparison of different methods allowing secretion analysis of individual cells, ranging from enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) related immunoassays to cytometry-based methods, microfluidic systems including micro- and nano-well, microchamber and droplet-based assays, and lastly novel, label-free optical methods. These methods vary in throughput, multiplexing capacity, complexity, and the possibility of cell recovery, criteria used to contrast the different technologies, enabling the reader to choose a suitable analytical strategy for their applications.
References
Armbrecht L, Müller RS, Nikoloff J, Dittrich PS (2019) Single-cell protein profiling in microchambers with barcoded beads. Microsyst Nanoeng 5:55
Bailey RC, Kwong GA, Radu CG, Witte ON, Heath JR (2007) DNA-encoded antibody libraries: a unified platform for multiplexed cell sorting and detection of genes and proteins. J Am Chem Soc 129:1959–1967
Bandura DR, Baranov VI, Ornatsky OI, Antonov A, Kinach R, Lou X, Pavlov S, Vorobiev S, Dick JE, Tanner SD (2009) Mass cytometry: technique for real time single cell multitarget immunoassay based on inductively coupled plasma time-of-flight mass spectrometry. Anal Chem 81:6813–6822
Braesch-Andersen S, Paulie S, Smedman C, Mia S, Kumagai-Braesch M (2013) ApoE production in human monocytes and its regulation by inflammatory cytokines. PLoS One 8:e79908
Brandi J, Dalla Pozza E, Dando I, Biondani G, Robotti E, Jenkins R, Elliott V, Park K, Marengo E, Costello E, Scarpa A, Palmieri M, Cecconi D (2016) Secretome protein signature of human pancreatic cancer stem-like cells. J Proteome 136:1–12
Brosterhus H, Brings S, Leyendeckers H, Manz RA, Miltenyi S, Radbruch A, Assenmacher M, Schmitz J (1999) Enrichment and detection of live antigen-specific CD4(+) and CD8(+) T cells based on cytokine secretion. Eur J Immunol 29:4053–4059
Chen Z, Chen JJ, Fan R (2019) Single-cell protein secretion detection and profiling. Annu Rev Anal Chem (Palo Alto, Calif) 12:431–449
Choi J, Love KR, Gong Y, Gierahn TM, Love JC (2011) Immuno-hybridization chain reaction for enhancing detection of individual cytokine-secreting human peripheral mononuclear cells. Anal Chem 83:6890–6895
Cossarizza A, Chang HD, Radbruch A, Akdis M, Andra I, Annunziato F, Bacher P, Barnaba V, Battistini L, Bauer WM, Baumgart S, Becher B, Beisker W, Berek C, Blanco A, Borsellino G, Boulais PE, Brinkman RR, Buscher M, Busch DH, Bushnell TP, Cao X, Cavani A, Chattopadhyay PK, Cheng Q, Chow S, Clerici M, Cooke A, Cosma A, Cosmi L, Cumano A, Dang VD, Davies D, De Biasi S, Del Zotto G, Della Bella S, Dellabona P, Deniz G, Dessing M, Diefenbach A, Di Santo J, Dieli F, Dolf A, Donnenberg VS, Dorner T, Ehrhardt GRA, Endl E, Engel P, Engelhardt B, Esser C, Everts B, Dreher A, Falk CS, Fehniger TA, Filby A, Fillatreau S, Follo M, Forster I, Foster J, Foulds GA, Frenette PS, Galbraith D, Garbi N, Garcia-Godoy MD, Geginat J, Ghoreschi K, Gibellini L, Goettlinger C, Goodyear CS, Gori A, Grogan J, Gross M, Grutzkau A, Grummitt D, Hahn J, Hammer Q, Hauser AE, Haviland DL, Hedley D, Herrera G, Herrmann M, Hiepe F, Holland T, Hombrink P, Houston JP, Hoyer BF, Huang B, Hunter CA, Iannone A, Jack HM, Javega B, Jonjic S, Juelke K, Jung S, Kaiser T, Kalina T, Keller B, Khan S, Kienhofer D, Kroneis T, Kunkel D, Kurts C, Kvistborg P, Lannigan J, Lantz O, Larbi A, LeibundGut-Landmann S, Leipold MD, Levings MK, Litwin V, Liu Y, Lohoff M, Lombardi G, Lopez L, Lovett-Racke A, Lubberts E, Ludewig B, Lugli E, Maecker HT, Martrus G, Matarese G, Maueroder C, McGrath M, McInnes I, Mei HE, Melchers F, Melzer S, Mielenz D, Mills K, Mirrer D, Mjosberg J, Moore J, Moran B, Moretta A, Moretta L, Mosmann TR, Muller S, Muller W, Munz C, Multhoff G, Munoz LE, Murphy KM, Nakayama T, Nasi M, Neudorfl C, Nolan J, Nourshargh S, O’Connor JE, Ouyang W, Oxenius A, Palankar R, Panse I, Peterson P, Peth C, Petriz J, Philips D, Pickl W, Piconese S, Pinti M, Pockley AG, Podolska MJ, Pucillo C, Quataert SA, Radstake T, Rajwa B, Rebhahn JA, Recktenwald D, Remmerswaal EBM, Rezvani K, Rico LG, Robinson JP, Romagnani C, Rubartelli A, Ruckert B, Ruland J, Sakaguchi S, Sala-de-Oyanguren F, Samstag Y, Sanderson S, Sawitzki B, Scheffold A, Schiemann M, Schildberg F, Schimisky E, Schmid SA, Schmitt S, Schober K, Schuler T, Schulz AR, Schumacher T, Scotta C, Shankey TV, Shemer A, Simon AK, Spidlen J, Stall AM, Stark R, Stehle C, Stein M, Steinmetz T, Stockinger H, Takahama Y, Tarnok A, Tian Z, Toldi G, Tornack J, Traggiai E, Trotter J, Ulrich H, van der Braber M, van Lier RAW, Veldhoen M, Vento-Asturias S, Vieira P, Voehringer D, Volk HD, von Volkmann K, Waisman A, Walker R, Ward MD, Warnatz K, Warth S, Watson JV, Watzl C, Wegener L, Wiedemann A, Wienands J, Willimsky G, Wing J, Wurst P, Yu L, Yue A, Zhang Q, Zhao Y, Ziegler S, Zimmermann J (2017) Guidelines for the use of flow cytometry and cell sorting in immunological studies. Eur J Immunol 47:1584–1797
Czerkinsky CC, Nilsson LA, Nygren H, Ouchterlony O, Tarkowski A (1983) A solid-phase enzyme-linked immunospot (ELISPOT) assay for enumeration of specific antibody-secreting cells. J Immunol Methods 65:109–121
Del Ben F, Turetta M, Celetti G, Piruska A, Bulfoni M, Cesselli D, Huck WT, Scoles G (2016) A method for detecting circulating tumor cells based on the measurement of single-cell metabolism in droplet-based microfluidics. Angew Chem Int Ed Engl 55:8581–8584
Dhar M, Lam JN, Walser T, Dubinett SM, Rettig MB, Di Carlo D (2018) Functional profiling of circulating tumor cells with an integrated vortex capture and single-cell protease activity assay. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 115:9986–9991
Dimou E, Nickel W (2018) Unconventional mechanisms of eukaryotic protein secretion. Curr Biol 28:R406–Rr10
Dranoff G (2004) Cytokines in cancer pathogenesis and cancer therapy. Nat Rev Cancer 4:11–22
Eyer K, Kuhn P, Hanke C, Dittrich PS (2012) A microchamber array for single cell isolation and analysis of intracellular biomolecules. Lab Chip 12:765–772
Eyer K, Doineau RCL, Castrillon CE, Briseno-Roa L, Menrath V, Mottet G, England P, Godina A, Brient-Litzler E, Nizak C, Jensen A, Griffiths AD, Bibette J, Bruhns P, Baudry J (2017) Single-cell deep phenotyping of IgG-secreting cells for high-resolution immune monitoring. Nat Biotechnol 35:977–982
Fitzgerald W, Grivel JC (2013) A universal nanoparticle cell secretion capture assay. Cytometry A 83:205–211
Gerard A, Woolfe A, Mottet G, Reichen M, Castrillon C, Menrath V, Ellouze S, Poitou A, Doineau R, Briseno-Roa L, Canales-Herrerias P, Mary P, Rose G, Ortega C, Delince M, Essono S, Jia B, Iannascoli B, Richard-Le Goff O, Kumar R, Stewart SN, Pousse Y, Shen B, Grosselin K, Saudemont B, Sautel-Caille A, Godina A, McNamara S, Eyer K, Millot GA, Baudry J, England P, Nizak C, Jensen A, Griffiths AD, Bruhns P, Brenan C (2020) High-throughput single-cell activity-based screening and sequencing of antibodies using droplet microfluidics. Nat Biotechnol 38:715–721
Gillardon F, Schmid R, Draheim H (2012) Parkinson’s disease-linked leucine-rich repeat kinase 2(R1441G) mutation increases proinflammatory cytokine release from activated primary microglial cells and resultant neurotoxicity. Neuroscience 208:41–48
Han Q, Bradshaw EM, Nilsson B, Hafler DA, Love JC (2010) Multidimensional analysis of the frequencies and rates of cytokine secretion from single cells by quantitative microengraving. Lab Chip 10:1391–1400
Han Q, Bagheri N, Bradshaw EM, Hafler DA, Lauffenburger DA, Love JC (2012) Polyfunctional responses by human T cells result from sequential release of cytokines. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 109:1607–1612
Han X, Liu K, Sun C (2019) Plasmonics for biosensing. Materials 12:1411. https://doi.org/10.3390/ma12091411
Hovdenak N, Haram K (2012) Influence of mineral and vitamin supplements on pregnancy outcome. Eur J Obstet Gynecol Reprod Biol 164:127–132
Hughes AJ, Spelke DP, Xu Z, Kang CC, Schaffer DV, Herr AE (2014) Single-cell western blotting. Nat Methods 11:749–755
Jahnmatz P, Sundling C, Makower B, Sondén K, Färnert A, Ahlborg N (2020) Multiplex analysis of antigen-specific memory B cells in humans using reversed B-cell FluoroSpot. J Immunol Methods 478:112715
Janetzki S, Rabin R (2015) Enzyme-linked immunospot (ELISpot) for single-cell analysis. Methods Mol Biol 1346:27–46
Janetzki S, Rueger M, Dillenbeck T (2014) Stepping up ELISpot: multi-level analysis in FluoroSpot assays. Cell 3:1102–1115
Jin A, Ozawa T, Tajiri K, Obata T, Kishi H, Muraguchi A (2011) Rapid isolation of antigen-specific antibody-secreting cells using a chip-based immunospot array. Nat Protoc 6:668–676
Jung T, Schauer U, Heusser C, Neumann C, Rieger C (1993) Detection of intracellular cytokines by flow cytometry. J Immunol Methods 159:197–207
Junkin M, Kaestli AJ, Cheng Z, Jordi C, Albayrak C, Hoffmann A, Tay S (2016) High-content quantification of single-cell immune dynamics. Cell Rep 15:411–422
Kesa G, Larsson PH, Ahlborg N, Axelsson B (2012) Comparison of ELISpot and FluoroSpot in the analysis of swine flu-specific IgG and IgA secretion by in vivo activated human B cells. Cell 1:27–34
Kida A, Iijima M, Niimi T, Maturana AD, Yoshimoto N, Kuroda S (2013) Cell surface-fluorescence immunosorbent assay for real-time detection of hybridomas with efficient antibody secretion at the single-cell level. Anal Chem 85:1753–1759
Konry T, Dominguez-Villar M, Baecher-Allan C, Hafler DA, Yarmush ML (2011) Droplet-based microfluidic platforms for single T cell secretion analysis of IL-10 cytokine. Biosens Bioelectron 26:2707–2710
Konry T, Golberg A, Yarmush M (2013) Live single cell functional phenotyping in droplet nano-liter reactors. Sci Rep 3:3179
Labib M, Kelley SO (2020) Single-cell analysis targeting the proteome. Nat Rev Chem 4:143–158
Li X, Soler M, Szydzik C, Khoshmanesh K, Schmidt J, Coukos G, Mitchell A, Altug H (2018) Label-free optofluidic nanobiosensor enables real-time analysis of single-cell cytokine secretion. Small 14:e1800698
Liechti T, Roederer M (2019) OMIP-060: 30-parameter flow cytometry panel to assess T cell effector functions and regulatory T cells. Cytometry A 95:1129–1134
Ling C, Del Guerra S, Lupi R, Ronn T, Granhall C, Luthman H, Masiello P, Marchetti P, Groop L, Del Prato S (2008) Epigenetic regulation of PPARGC1A in human type 2 diabetic islets and effect on insulin secretion. Diabetologia 51:615–622
Liu Y, Singh AK (2013) Microfluidic platforms for single-cell protein analysis. J Lab Autom 18:446–454
Love JC, Ronan JL, Grotenbreg GM, van der Veen AG, Ploegh HL (2006) A microengraving method for rapid selection of single cells producing antigen-specific antibodies. Nat Biotechnol 24:703–707
Lovelace P, Maecker HT (2018) Multiparameter intracellular cytokine staining. Methods Mol Biol 1678:151–166
Lu Y, Chen JJ, Mu L, Xue Q, Wu Y, Wu PH, Li J, Vortmeyer AO, Miller-Jensen K, Wirtz D, Fan R (2013) High-throughput secretomic analysis of single cells to assess functional cellular heterogeneity. Anal Chem 85:2548–2556
Lu Y, Xue Q, Eisele MR, Sulistijo ES, Brower K, Han L, Amir el AD, Pe’er D, Miller-Jensen K, Fan R (2015) Highly multiplexed profiling of single-cell effector functions reveals deep functional heterogeneity in response to pathogenic ligands. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 112:E607–E615
Ma C, Fan R, Ahmad H, Shi Q, Comin-Anduix B, Chodon T, Koya RC, Liu CC, Kwong GA, Radu CG, Ribas A, Heath JR (2011) A clinical microchip for evaluation of single immune cells reveals high functional heterogeneity in phenotypically similar T cells. Nat Med 17:738–743
Maecker HT, Harari A (2015) Immune monitoring technology primer: flow and mass cytometry. J Immunother Cancer 3:44
Manz R, Assenmacher M, Pfluger E, Miltenyi S, Radbruch A (1995) Analysis and sorting of live cells according to secreted molecules, relocated to a cell-surface affinity matrix. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 92:1921–1925
Mazutis L, Gilbert J, Ung WL, Weitz DA, Griffiths AD, Heyman JA (2013) Single-cell analysis and sorting using droplet-based microfluidics. Nat Protoc 8:870–891
McDonald MP, Gemeinhardt A, Konig K, Piliarik M, Schaffer S, Volkl S, Aigner M, Mackensen A, Sandoghdar V (2018) Visualizing single-cell secretion dynamics with single-protein sensitivity. Nano Lett 18:513–519
Mongersun A, Smeenk I, Pratx G, Asuri P, Abbyad P (2016) Droplet microfluidic platform for the determination of single-cell lactate release. Anal Chem 88:3257–3263
Mulukutla BC, Yongky A, Grimm S, Daoutidis P, Hu WS (2015) Multiplicity of steady states in glycolysis and shift of metabolic state in cultured mammalian cells. PLoS One 10:e0121561
Murphy TW, Zhang Q, Naler LB, Ma S, Lu C (2017) Recent advances in the use of microfluidic technologies for single cell analysis. Analyst 143:60–80
Ogunniyi AO, Story CM, Papa E, Guillen E, Love JC (2009) Screening individual hybridomas by microengraving to discover monoclonal antibodies. Nat Protoc 4:767–782
Ornatsky O, Bandura D, Baranov V, Nitz M, Winnik MA, Tanner S (2010) Highly multiparametric analysis by mass cytometry. J Immunol Methods 361:1–20
Papalexi E, Satija R (2018) Single-cell RNA sequencing to explore immune cell heterogeneity. Nat Rev Immunol 18:35–45
Qiu L, Wimmers F, Weiden J, Heus HA, Tel J, Figdor CG (2017) A membrane-anchored aptamer sensor for probing IFNgamma secretion by single cells. Chem Commun (Camb) 53:8066–8069
Rabouille C (2017) Pathways of unconventional protein secretion. Trends Cell Biol 27:230–240
Rugbjerg P, Sommer MOA (2019) Overcoming genetic heterogeneity in industrial fermentations. Nat Biotechnol 37:869–876
Salerno F, Engels S, van den Biggelaar M, van Alphen FPJ, Guislain A, Zhao W, Hodge DL, Bell SE, Medema JP, von Lindern M, Turner M, Young HA, Wolkers MC (2018) Translational repression of pre-formed cytokine-encoding mRNA prevents chronic activation of memory T cells. Nat Immunol 19:828–837
Saletti G, Cuburu N, Yang JS, Dey A, Czerkinsky C (2013) Enzyme-linked immunospot assays for direct ex vivo measurement of vaccine-induced human humoral immune responses in blood. Nat Protoc 8:1073–1087
Secchi G (2008) Role of protein in cosmetics. Clin Dermatol 26:321–325
Shembekar N, Chaipan C, Utharala R, Merten CA (2016) Droplet-based microfluidics in drug discovery, transcriptomics and high-throughput molecular genetics. Lab Chip 16:1314–1331
Shembekar N, Hu H, Eustace D, Merten CA (2018) Single-cell droplet microfluidic screening for antibodies specifically binding to target cells. Cell Rep 22:2206–2215
Sinha N, Subedi N, Tel J (2018) Integrating immunology and microfluidics for single immune cell analysis. Front Immunol 9:2373
Spitzer MH, Nolan GP (2016) Mass cytometry: single cells, many features. Cell 165:780–791
Stahlberg A, Kubista M, Aman P (2011) Single-cell gene-expression profiling and its potential diagnostic applications. Expert Rev Mol Diagn 11:735–740
Stiefel P, Mauerhofer S, Schneider J, Maniura-Weber K, Rosenberg U, Ren Q (2016) Enzymes enhance biofilm removal efficiency of cleaners. Antimicrob Agents Chemother 60:3647–3652
Sukovich DJ, Kim SC, Ahmed N, Abate AR (2017) Bulk double emulsification for flow cytometric analysis of microfluidic droplets. Analyst 142:4618–4622
Taylor RW, Sandoghdar V (2019) Interferometric scattering (iSCAT) microscopy and related techniques. In: Astratov V (ed) Label-free super-resolution microscopy. Springer, Cham
Uhlén M, Karlsson MJ, Hober A, Svensson AS, Scheffel J, Kotol D, Zhong W, Tebani A, Strandberg L, Edfors F, Sjöstedt E, Mulder J, Mardinoglu A, Berling A, Ekblad S, Dannemeyer M, Kanje S, Rockberg J, Lundqvist M, Malm M, Volk AL, Nilsson P, Månberg A, Dodig-Crnkovic T, Pin E, Zwahlen M, Oksvold P, von Feilitzen K, Häussler RS, Hong MG, Lindskog C, Ponten F, Katona B, Vuu J, Lindström E, Nielsen J, Robinson J, Ayoglu B, Mahdessian D, Sullivan D, Thul P, Danielsson F, Stadler C, Lundberg E, Bergström G, Gummesson A, Voldborg BG, Tegel H, Hober S, Forsström B, Schwenk JM, Fagerberg L, Sivertsson Å (2019) The human secretome. Sci Signal 12. https://doi.org/10.1126/scisignal.aaz0274
Walenta S, Mueller-Klieser WF (2004) Lactate: mirror and motor of tumor malignancy. Semin Radiat Oncol 14:267–274
Warburg O (1956) On the origin of cancer cells. Science 123:309–314
Woronoff G, Nghe P, Baudry J, Boitard L, Braun E, Griffiths AD, Bibette J (2020) Metabolic cost of rapid adaptation of single yeast cells. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 117:10660–10666
Wu M, Singh AK (2012) Single-cell protein analysis. Curr Opin Biotechnol 23:83–88
Yang L, George J, Wang J (2019) Deep profiling of cellular heterogeneity by emerging single-cell proteomic technologies. Proteomics 20:e1900226
Yuan Y, Brouchon J, Calvo-Calle JM, Xia J, Sun L, Zhang X, Clayton KL, Ye F, Weitz DA, Heyman JA (2020) Droplet encapsulation improves accuracy of immune cell cytokine capture assays. Lab Chip 20:1513–1520
Zhu C, Luo X, Espulgar WV, Koyama S, Kumanogoh A, Saito M, Takamatsu H, Tamiya E (2020) Real-time monitoring and detection of single-cell level cytokine secretion using LSPR technology. Micromachines (Basel) 11:107. https://doi.org/10.3390/mi11010107
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd
About this entry
Cite this entry
Bucheli, O.T.M., Sigvaldadóttir, I., Eyer, K. (2020). Biochemical Analysis of Secreted Molecules by Individual Cells. In: Santra, T.S., Tseng, FG. (eds) Handbook of Single Cell Technologies. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-4857-9_48-1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-4857-9_48-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-10-4857-9
Online ISBN: 978-981-10-4857-9
eBook Packages: Springer Reference EngineeringReference Module Computer Science and Engineering