Small extracellular vesicles from rat plasma promote migration andproliferation of vascular smooth muscle cells

摘要

Small extracellular vesicles (sEV) contain various molecules and mediate cell-to-cellcommunication under both physiological and pathological conditions. We have recentlyreported that sEV isolated from plasma of normotensive Wistar Kyoto rats (WKY) andspontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) regulate systemic blood pressure. The initiation anddevelopment of hypertension partly rely on proliferation and migration of vascular smoothmuscle cells (SMCs) followed by the structural remodeling of vascular wall. In the presentstudy, we examined the effects of plasma sEV in WKY and SHR on the proliferative andmigratory functions of primary rat aortic SMCs. There was no difference in theconcentration and size distribution of plasma sEV between WKY and SHR, while the proteinexpression of CD81 in plasma sEV from SHR was lower than that from WKY. Both plasma sEVfrom WKY and SHR were internalized into SMCs and stimulated the migration andproliferation with a similar potency. In summary, we, for the first time, demonstratedthat plasma sEV in WKY and SHR are physiologically active in terms of proliferative andmigratory functions, however, these effects do not seem to be related to the pathogenesisof hypertension development.