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Updated: Nov 19, 2025

Monitoring the Effect of Osmotic Stress on Secretory Vesicles and Exocytosis
Published on: February 19, 2018
Environmental pH stress influences cellular secretion and uptake of extracellular vesicles
Ikuhiko Nakase1,2, Natsumi Ueno1,2, Mie Matsuzawa2
1Graduate School of Science, Osaka Prefecture University, Sakai, Japan.
Abstract:
Exosomes (extracellular vesicles/EVs) participate in cell-cell communication and contain bioactive molecules, such as microRNAs. However, the detailed characteristics of secreted EVs produced by cells grown under low pH conditions are still unknown. Here, we report that low pH in the cell culture medium significantly affected the secretion of EVs with increased protein content and zeta potential. The intracellular expression level and location of stably expressed GFP-fused CD63 (an EV tetraspanin) in HeLa cells were also significantly affected by environmental pH. In addition, increased cellular uptake of EVs was observed. Moreover, the uptake rate was influenced by the presence of serum in the cell culture medium. Our findings contribute to our understanding of the effect of environmental conditions on EV-based cell-cell communication.
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