4.8 Article

Shedding plasma membrane vesicles induced by graphene oxide nanoflakes in brain cultured astrocytes

Journal

CARBON
Volume 176, Issue -, Pages 458-469

Publisher

PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.carbon.2021.01.142

Keywords

Graphene oxide; Extracellular vesicles; Atomic force microscopy and spectroscopy; FTIR-ATR and UVRR spectroscopy; Synaptic activity; Cortical neuronal cultures

Funding

  1. European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme [785219, 881603]
  2. CERIC-ERIC [20167063]
  3. European Regional Development Fund
  4. Interreg V-A Italia-Austria 2014-2020 project EXOTHERA [ITAT1036]

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Microvesicles generated by astrocytes play a crucial role in intercellular communication, modulating neuronal functions. By utilizing nanotechnology and unconventional tools, deeper understanding of these glial signals can be achieved.
Microvesicles (MVs) generated and released by astrocytes, the brain prevalent cells, crucially contribute to intercellular communication, representing key vectorized systems able to spread and actively transfer signaling molecules from astrocytes to neurons, ultimately modulating target cell functions. The increasing clinical relevance of these signaling systems requires a deeper understanding of MV features, currently limited by both their nanoscale dimensions and the low rate of their constituent release. Hence, to investigate the features of such glial signals, nanotechnology-based approaches and the applications of unconventional, cost-effective tools in generating MVs are needed. Here, small graphene oxide (s-GO) nanoflakes are used to boost MVs shedding from astrocytes in cultures and s-GO generated MVs are compared with those generated by a natural stimulant, namely ATP, by atomic force microscopy, light scattering, attenuated total reflection-fourier transform infra-red and ultraviolet resonance Raman spectroscopy. We also report the ability of both types of MVs, upon acute and transient exposure of patch clamped cultured neurons, to modulate basal synaptic transmission, inducing a stable increase in synaptic activity accompanied by changes in neuronal plasma membrane elastic features. (C) 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.

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