Liver‐originated small extracellular vesicles with TM4SF5 target brown adipose tissue for homeostatic glucose clearance

Extracellular Vesicles
/References

Transmembrane 4 L six family member 5 (TM4SF5) is involved in chronic liver disease, although its role in glucose homeostasis remains unknown. TM4SF5 deficiency caused age-dependent glucose (in)tolerance with no link to insulin sensitivity. Further, hepatic TM4SF5 binding to GLUT1 promoted glucose uptake and glycolysis. Excessive glucose repletion caused hepatocytes to secrete small extracellular vesicles (sEVs) loaded with TM4SF5 (hep-sEVTm4sf5 ), suggesting a role for sEVTm4sf5 in glucose metabolism and homeostasis. Hep-sEVTm4sf5 were smaller than sEVControl and recruit proteins for efficient organ tropism. Liver-derived sEVs, via a liver-closed vein circuit (LCVC) using hepatic TM4SF5-overexpressing (Alb-Tm4sf5 TG) mice (liv-sEVTm4sf5 ), improved glucose tolerance in Tm4sf5-/- KO mice and targeted brown adipose tissues (BATs), possibly allowing the clearance of blood glucose as heat independent of UCP1. Taken together, hep-sEVTm4sf5 might clear high extracellular glucose levels more efficiently by targeting BAT compared with hep-sEVControl , suggesting an insulin-like role for sEV™4SF5 in affecting age-related metabolic status and thus body weight (BW).

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Cigarette smoke (CS) represents one of the most relevant environmental risk factors for several chronic pathologies. Tissue damage caused by CS exposure is mediated, at least in part, by oxidative stress induced by its toxic and pro-oxidant components. Evidence demonstrates that extracellular vesicles (EVs) released by various cell types exposed to CS extract (CSE) are characterized by altered biochemical cargo and gained pathological properties. In the present study, we evaluated the content of oxidized proteins and phospholipid fatty acid profiles of EVs released by human bronchial epithelial BEAS-2B cells treated with CSE. This specific molecular characterization has hitherto not been performed. After confirmation that CSE reduces viability of BEAS-2B cells and elevates intracellular ROS levels, in a dose-dependent manner, we demonstrated that 24 h exposure at 1% CSE, a concentration that only slight modifies cell viability but increases ROS levels, was able to increase carbonylated protein levels in cells and released EVs. The release of oxidatively modified proteins via EVs might represent a mechanism used by cells to remove toxic proteins in order to avoid their intracellular overloading. Moreover, 1% CSE induced only few changes in the fatty acid asset in BEAS-2B cell membrane phospholipids, whereas several rearrangements were observed in EVs released by CSE-treated cells. The impact of changes in acyl chain composition of CSE-EVs accounted for the increased saturation levels of phospholipids, a membrane parameter that might influence EV stability, uptake and, at least in part, EV-mediated biological effects. The present in vitro study adds new information concerning the biochemical composition of CSE-related EVs, useful to predict their biological effects on target cells. Furthermore, the information regarding the presence of oxidized proteins and the specific membrane features of CSE-related EVs can be useful to define the utilization of circulating EVs as marker for diagnosing of CS-induced lung damage and/or CS-related diseases.

2023
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