The Uptake of Extracellular Vesicles is Affected by the Differentiation Status of Myeloid Cells

Intercellular communication includes the exchange of various membrane vesicles including exosomes. Exosomes are intraluminal nanovesicles generated from multivesicular bodies, a late endosomal compartment. Cancer cells release exosomes that influence their proximate and distant environment to facilitate angiogenesis, metastatic dissemination and immune escape. Cancer-derived vesicles may also trigger an anti-tumour response by transferring tumour antigens to immune cells. We wanted to investigate whether differentiation and maturation of myeloid cells changes their capacity to take up cancer-derived extracellular vesicles (EV). We compared the efficiency of vesicle uptake by monocytes, macrophages and dendritic cells. To visualize and quantify the cellular uptake, EV were labelled with two different dyes, carboxyfluoresceine diacetate succinimidyl-ester (CFSE), or DSSN+, a water soluble distyrylstilbene oligoelectrolyte which preferentially intercalates into the cell membrane. With the help of cytokines, THP-1 monocytes were differentiated into immature or mature dendritic cells, or macrophages. EV uptake was monitored by flow cytometry and immunofluorescence microscopy. The results show that macrophages and mature dendritic cells acquired stronger fluorescence transferred by EV than monocytes or immature dendritic cells indicating that the differentiation status influences the efficiency of EV uptake.