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Bronchoalveolar Lavage Exosomes in Lipopolysaccharide-induced Septic Lung Injury
Published on: May 21, 2018
Involvement of epithelia-derived exosomes in chronic respiratory diseases
1Department of Respiratory Medicine, National Clinical Research Center for Respiratory Diseases, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China; Department of Physiology, School of Basic Medicine Science, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China; Basic and Clinical Research Laboratory of Major Respiratory Diseases, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China.
Abstract:
Exosomes are tiny membrane lipid bilayer vesicles (φ40-100 nm) formed by the fusion of multivesicular bodies with plasma membrane, which are released extracellular by exocytosis. As natural nanocarriers, exosomes contain a variety of signal substances of the mother cell: nucleic acids, proteins and lipids, etc., which always play a vital role in the transmission of signal molecules between different cells. Epithelial cells are the first-line defense system against various inhaled allergens causing chronic respiratory diseases (CRD), such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). It's noted that increasing literature shows the exosomes derived from epithelial cells are involved in the pathogenesis of CRD. Moreover, the correlations between exosome cargo and the disease phenotypes show a high potential of using exosomes as biomarkers of CRD. In this review, we mainly focus on the physiological functions of epithelial-derived exosomes and illustrate the involved mechanism of epithelial-derived exosomes in common CRD.
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