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Updated: Aug 16, 2026

Characterization of Immune Cell-derived Extracellular Vesicles and Studying Functional Impact on Cell Environment
Published on: June 2, 2020
Shedding of membrane vesicles by tumor and endothelial cells
V Dolo1, S D'Ascenzo, I Giusti
1Department of Experimental Medicine, University of L'Aquila, L'Aquila, Italy. dolo@univaq.it
Abstract:
Shedding of membrane vesicles is a vital phenomenon frequently observed in tumor cells and suggested to be involved in several aspects of tumor progression. Our previous studies have shown that human breast tumor cells rapidly shed membrane vesicles containing matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs). In this study we present that human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) as well as different tumor cell lines (human ovarian cancer, CABA I and A2780, and hepatocarcinoma cell line, SK-Hep 1) shed vesicles in the extracellular medium. These vesicles carry MMPs and their inhibitors TIMPs. We conclude that tumor and endothelial cells shed MMP-containing vesicles and this may represent a mechanism for regulating focalized proteolytic activity and a way to interact with microenvironment during tumor angiogenesis.
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