细胞外囊泡成像方法最新研究进展

Progress in extracellular vesicle imaging methods

目的细胞外囊泡包括外泌体和微囊泡,是由细胞分泌的具有磷脂双分子层结构的纳米小泡。细胞外囊泡作为蛋白质、mRNA、miRNA、脂质等信息物质在细胞间转运的载体,是细胞与细胞间通讯的重要媒介。目前各种可视化成像方法已经用于研究细胞外囊泡特性及其在生理病理进程中的作用,然而,受限于细胞外囊泡纳米级的大小和高度异质性的特点,人们对其生物学特征和功能认知仍然十分有限。本文从细胞外囊泡起源、分离、动态观测等不同阶段出发,着重论述了细胞外囊泡成像方法,讨论不同策略的优势与不足。我们提出了单细胞、单囊泡水平的研究是今后细胞外囊泡研究的前沿方向。

Extracellular vesicles(EVs),including exosomes and microvesicles,are lipid bilayer-enclosed nanovesicles secreted by cells.These EVs are important mediators of intercellular communication by serving as vehicles for transfer of proteins,mRNA,miRNA and lipids between cells.Various visualization methods have been established to explore the characteristics of EVs and their role in physiological and pathological processes.The nanoscale size and high heterogeneity of EVs hamper the identification of their biological characteristics and functions.This review presents a comprehensive overview of EV imaging methods in light of the origin,separation and dynamic tracking of EVs,and the advantages and disadvantages of different imaging strategies are discussed.We believe that studies at the levels of single vesicles and single cells will become the frontier of future researches of EVs.