Escudero-Cernuda Sara, Eiro Noemi, Fraile María, Vizoso Francisco J, Fernández-Colomer Belén, Fernández-Sánchez María Luisa
Department of Physical and Analytical Chemistry, University of Oviedo, Avda. Julián Clavería, 8, 33006, Oviedo, Asturias, Spain.
Research Unit, Jove Hospital Foundation, Avda. Eduardo Castro, 161, 33920, Gijón, Asturias, Spain.
Mikrochim Acta. 2025 Apr 21;192(5):311. doi: 10.1007/s00604-025-07147-4.
Exosomes are a subpopulation of nanosized extracellular vesicles (EVs), formed by a lipid bilayer and naturally secreted by cells. They transport RNA, microRNAs, bioactive proteins, and lipids and play an important role in intercellular communication. Exosomes are a promising alternative cell-free therapy in regenerative medicine, immunotherapy, and drug delivery. The implementation of new exosomes treatments requires knowledge of its concentration, purity, and full characterization. However, comparing different studies is highly challenging due to the lack of validated methodologies for isolation and determination, as well as a lack of well-characterized exosomes reference standards. In this work, human uterine cervical mesenchymal stem cell (hUCESC) EVs have been isolated by ultracentrifugation and characterized, discussing the current limitations of characterization methods. First, total protein assays are heavily influenced by free-protein and lipid contaminations which confirm the need of employing several methods for vesicular protein determination. This purity variation seems heavily influenced by the vesicles origin as more complex mediums originate more matrix interferences. Size exclusion high performance liquid chromatography has been demonstrated as a new methodology for purity assessment of hUCESC-EVs and commercial EVs (adipose stem cells and human serum). The results found low purity in the commercial exosomes highlighting that protein and lipid purity must be included in the commercial EVs. Finally, the combination of this chromatography method with total protein assays proved that particle concentration could be estimated using vesicular protein concentration.
外泌体是纳米级细胞外囊泡(EVs)的一个亚群,由脂质双层形成并由细胞自然分泌。它们运输RNA、微小RNA、生物活性蛋白和脂质,在细胞间通讯中发挥重要作用。在外再生医学、免疫疗法和药物递送中,外泌体是一种很有前景的无细胞替代疗法。实施新的外泌体治疗需要了解其浓度、纯度和全面特征。然而,由于缺乏经过验证的分离和测定方法,以及缺乏充分表征的外泌体参考标准,比较不同的研究极具挑战性。在这项工作中,通过超速离心分离并表征了人子宫颈间充质干细胞(hUCESC)的细胞外囊泡,讨论了表征方法目前存在的局限性。首先,总蛋白测定受到游离蛋白和脂质污染的严重影响,这证实了需要采用多种方法来测定囊泡蛋白。这种纯度差异似乎受囊泡来源的严重影响,因为更复杂的培养基会产生更多的基质干扰。尺寸排阻高效液相色谱已被证明是一种评估hUCESC-EV和商业EV(脂肪干细胞和人血清)纯度的新方法。结果发现商业外泌体的纯度较低,这突出表明商业EV中必须包括蛋白质和脂质纯度。最后,这种色谱方法与总蛋白测定相结合证明,可以使用囊泡蛋白浓度来估计颗粒浓度。
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