Seminar
Tuesday, October 23, 2018 - 12:00am
Graduate Student Jeffrey Julien will present
"Characterization & Analysis of Extracellular Vesicles Using Flow Cytometry"
on October 23, 2018 at 4:10 PM in Neville Hall, Room 3
Extracellular vesicles (EVs) have emerged as critical players in the game of intercellular communication. EVs are hollow, spherical, membranous compartments ranging in size from tens of nanometers to a few microns.1 The hollow nature of EVs allow them to carry cargo (i.e. proteins, nucleic acids, etc.) to neighboring cells. EVs exert their function either by releasing cargo held within the hollow center to the recipient cell, or through signaling proteins located on their outer surface.2 In addition, EVs have been shown to be intimately involved in disease progression. For example, in cancer and inflammation, the analysis of these small biological packages contain markers or indicators of the disease’s presence and progression.6 Despite the clear establishment of EVs in cellular communication, the full details of how EVs carry out their crucial work remains elusive. Flow cytometry has shown promise to help elucidate the role of EVs in different disease states by providing more accurate detection and quantification methods. The use of flow cytometry overcomes many of the shortcomings of more traditional detection methods because of its high sensitivity and efficiency.3 Three literature articles exemplify the capabilities of flow cytometry, which include how it is utilized with a bead-assisted method for assessing homo- and heterogeneous EV samples.4 As opposed to EV-bead coupling, NanoFACS can also be used to address various EV labeling methods along with the efficient characterization of EVs.5 Lastly, the implications and power of flow cytometry are exemplified in a study on the ability to profile proteins from EVs taken from colorectal cancer patients.5,6 Overall, the culmination of these works highlight the robust role of using flow cytometry as a diagnostic tool for EV characterization. (1) Borges, F. T.; Reis, L. A.; Schor, N. Extracellular Vesicles: Structure, Function, and Potential Clinical Uses in Renal Diseases. Braz. J. Med. Biol. Res. 2013, 46 (10), 824–830. (2) Yáñez-Mó, M.; Siljander, P. R.-M.; Andreu, Z.; Zavec, A. B.; Borràs, F. E.; Buzas, E. I.; Buzas, K.; Casal, E.; Cappello, F.; Carvalho, J.; et al. Biological Properties of Extracellular Vesicles and Their Physiological Functions. J. Extracell. Vesicles 2015, 4. (3) Erdbrügger, U.; Lannigan, J. Analytical Challenges of Extracellular Vesicle Detection: A Comparison of Different Techniques. Cytometry A 2015, 89 (2), 123–134. (4) Suárez, H.; Gámez-Valero, A.; Reyes, R.; López-Martín, S.; Rodríguez, M. J.; Carrascosa, J. L.; Cabañas, C.; Borràs, F. E.; Yáñez-Mó, M. A Bead-Assisted Flow Cytometry Method for the Semi-Quantitative Analysis of Extracellular Vesicles. Sci. Rep. 2017, 7 (1), 11271. (5) Morales-Kastresana, A.; Telford, B.; Musich, T. A.; McKinnon, K.; Clayborne, C.; Braig, Z.; Rosner, A.; Demberg, T.; Watson, D. C.; Karpova, T. S.; et al. Labeling Extracellular Vesicles for Nanoscale Flow Cytometry. Sci. Rep. 2017, 7 (1). (6) Tian, Y.; Ma, L.; Gong, M.; Su, G.; Zhu, S.; Zhang, W.; Wang, S.; Li, Z.; Chen, C.; Li, L.; et al. Protein Profiling and Sizing of Extracellular Vesicles from Colorectal Cancer Patients via Flow Cytometry. ACS Nano 2018, 12 (1), 671–680.