School of Medicine, The University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK.
School of Pharmacy, The University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK.
Cells. 2021 Sep 14;10(9):2413. doi: 10.3390/cells10092413.
Low-power sonication is widely used to disaggregate extracellular vesicles (EVs) after isolation, however, the effects of sonication on EV samples beyond dispersion are unclear. The present study analysed the characteristics of EVs collected from mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) after sonication, using a combination of transmission electron microscopy, direct stochastic optical reconstruction microscopy, and flow cytometry techniques. Results showed that beyond the intended disaggregation effect, sonication using the lowest power setting available was enough to alter the size distribution, membrane integrity, and uptake of EVs in cultured cells. These results point to the need for a more systematic analysis of sonication procedures to improve reproducibility in EV-based cellular experiments.
低强度超声处理广泛用于分离后分散细胞外囊泡（EVs），然而，超声处理对 EV 样品的影响除了分散之外还不清楚。本研究使用透射电子显微镜、直接随机光学重建显微镜和流式细胞术技术，分析了从间充质干细胞（MSCs）中分离得到的 EV 样本的特征。结果表明，除了预期的分散效果外，使用最低功率设置的超声处理足以改变 EV 的大小分布、膜完整性以及培养细胞对 EV 的摄取。这些结果表明需要更系统地分析超声处理程序，以提高基于 EV 的细胞实验的可重复性。
