Helwa Inas, Cai Jingwen, Drewry Michelle D, Zimmerman Arthur, Dinkins Michael B, Khaled Mariam Lotfy, Seremwe Mutsa, Dismuke W Michael, Bieberich Erhard, Stamer W Daniel, Hamrick Mark W, Liu Yutao
Department of Cellular Biology and Anatomy, Augusta University, Augusta, Georgia, United States of America.
Department of Neuroscience and Regenerative Medicine, Augusta University, Augusta, Georgia, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2017 Jan 23;12(1):e0170628. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0170628. eCollection 2017.
Exosomes play a role in cell-to-cell signaling and serve as possible biomarkers. Isolating exosomes with reliable quality and substantial concentration is a major challenge. Our purpose is to compare the exosomes extracted by three different exosome isolation kits (miRCURY, ExoQuick, and Invitrogen Total Exosome Isolation Reagent) and differential ultracentrifugation (UC) using six different volumes of a non-cancerous human serum (5 ml, 1 ml, 500 μl, 250 μl, 100 μl, and 50 μl) and three different volumes (1 ml, 500 μl and 100 μl) of six individual commercial serum samples collected from human donors. The smaller starting volumes (100 μl and 50 μl) are used to mimic conditions of limited availability of heterogeneous biological samples. The isolated exosomes were characterized based upon size, quantity, zeta potential, CD63 and CD9 protein expression, and exosomal RNA (exRNA) quality and quantity using several complementary methods: nanoparticle tracking analysis (NTA) with ZetaView, western blot, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), the Agilent Bioanalyzer system, and droplet digital PCR (ddPCR). Our NTA results showed that all isolation techniques produced exosomes within the expected size range (40-150 nm). The three kits, though, produced a significantly higher yield (80-300 fold) of exosomes as compared to UC for all serum volumes, except 5 mL. We also found that exosomes isolated by the different techniques and serum volumes had similar zeta potentials to previous studies. Western blot analysis and TEM immunogold labelling confirmed the expression of two common exosomal protein markers, CD63 and CD9, in samples isolated by all techniques. All exosome isolations yielded high quality exRNA, containing mostly small RNA with a peak between 25 and 200 nucleotides in size. ddPCR results indicated that exosomes isolated from similar serum volumes but different isolation techniques rendered similar concentrations of two selected exRNA: hsa-miR-16 and hsa-miR-451. In summary, the three commercial exosome isolation kits are viable alternatives to UC, even when limited amounts of biological samples are available.
外泌体在细胞间信号传导中发挥作用,并可能作为生物标志物。分离出质量可靠且浓度可观的外泌体是一项重大挑战。我们的目的是比较使用三种不同的外泌体分离试剂盒(miRCURY、ExoQuick和Invitrogen总外泌体分离试剂)以及差速超速离心法(UC),从六种不同体积的非癌性人血清(5毫升、1毫升、500微升、250微升、100微升和50微升)和从人类供体收集的六个单独商业血清样本的三种不同体积(1毫升、500微升和100微升)中提取的外泌体。较小的起始体积(100微升和50微升)用于模拟异质生物样本可用性有限的情况。使用几种互补方法,基于大小、数量、zeta电位、CD63和CD9蛋白表达以及外泌体RNA(exRNA)的质量和数量对分离出的外泌体进行表征:使用ZetaView的纳米颗粒跟踪分析(NTA)、蛋白质印迹法、透射电子显微镜(TEM)、安捷伦生物分析仪系统和液滴数字PCR(ddPCR)。我们的NTA结果表明,所有分离技术产生的外泌体大小均在预期范围内(40 - 150纳米)。不过,对于所有血清体积(5毫升除外),这三种试剂盒产生的外泌体产量比UC法显著更高(高出80 - 300倍)。我们还发现,通过不同技术和血清体积分离出的外泌体的zeta电位与先前研究相似。蛋白质印迹分析和TEM免疫金标记证实了两种常见的外泌体蛋白标志物CD63和CD9在所有技术分离的样本中的表达。所有外泌体分离物均产生高质量的exRNA,其中大部分是大小在25至200个核苷酸之间的小RNA。ddPCR结果表明,从相似血清体积但不同分离技术分离出的外泌体中,两种选定的exRNA(hsa - miR - 16和hsa - miR - 451)的浓度相似。总之,即使在生物样本量有限的情况下,这三种商业外泌体分离试剂盒也是UC法可行的替代方法。