Extracellular membrane vesicle shedding and the blood-brain barrier

Shedding of extracellular membrane vesicles from both normal and tumor cells in culture

Tumor cells of different origins shed extracellular membrane vesicles (MVs), that contain angiogenetic- and pro-apoptotic-factors as well as matrix metalloproteases (MMPs). In addition, also neurons and astrocytes in culture produce VEGF- and FGF2- containing MVs, while oligodendroglioma (G26/24) cells release FasL-containing MVs that inhibit neurite sprouting and cause neuronal apoptosis. Starting from these observations, we have been analyzing composition of MVs produced by both normal and tumor cells in culture. We found that MVs from G26/24 cells contain TRAIL, Hsp70, and VEGF. We also traced the route of shed MVs, by adding vesicles that contain 35S-labeled proteins to unlabeled neuron…