Mesenchymal Stem Cells Do Not Lose Direct Labels Including Iron Oxide Nanoparticles and DFO-89Zr Chelates through Secretion of Extracellular Vesicles

Extracellular Vesicles
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Rapidly ageing populations are beset by tissue wear and damage. Stem cell-based regenerative medicine is considered a solution. Years of research point to two important aspects: (1) the use of cellular imaging to achieve sufficient precision of therapeutic intervention, and the fact that (2) many therapeutic actions are executed through extracellular vesicles (EV), released by stem cells. Therefore, there is an urgent need to interrogate cellular labels in the context of EV release. We studied clinically applicable cellular labels: superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPION), and radionuclide detectable by two main imaging modalities: MRI and PET. We have demonstrated effective stem cell labeling using both labels. Then, we obtained EVs from cell cultures and tested for the presence of cellular labels. We did not find either magnetic or radioactive labels in EVs. Therefore, we report that stem cells do not lose labels in released EVs, which indicates the reliability of stem cell magnetic and radioactive labeling, and that there is no interference of labels with EV content. In conclusion, we observed that direct cellular labeling seems to be an attractive approach to monitoring stem cell delivery, and that, importantly, labels neither locate in EVs nor affect their basic properties.

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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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