Cellular internalization of exosomes occurs through phagocytosis

Du Feng, Wen Long Zhao, Yun Ying Ye, Xiao Chen Bai, Rui Qin Liu, Lei Fu Chang, Qiang Zhou, Sen Fang Sui

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

729 Scopus citations

Abstract

Exosomes play important roles in many physiological and pathological processes. However, the exosome-cell interaction mode and the intracellular trafficking pathway of exosomes in their recipient cells remain unclear. Here, we report that exosomes derived from K562 or MT4 cells are internalized more efficiently by phagocytes than by non-phagocytic cells. Most exosomes were observed attached to the plasma membrane of non-phagocytic cells, while in phagocytic cells these exosomes were found to enter via phagocytosis. Specifically, they moved to phagosomes together with phagocytic polystyrene carboxylate-modified latex beads (biospheres) and were further sorted into phagolysosomes. Moreover, exosome internalization was dependent on the actin cytoskeleton and phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase, and could be inhibited by the knockdown of dynamin2 or overexpression of a dominant-negative form of dynamin2. Further, antibody pretreatment assays demonstrated that tim4 but not tim1 was involved in exosomes uptake. We also found that exosomes did not enter the internalization pathway involving caveolae, macropinocytosis and clathrin-coated vesicles. Our observation that the cellular uptake of exosomes occurs through phagocytosis has important implications for exosome-cell interactions and the exosome intracellular trafficking pathway.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)675-687
Number of pages13
JournalTraffic
Volume11
Issue number5
DOIs
StatePublished - May 2010

Keywords

  • Caveolin
  • Clathrin
  • Dynamin
  • Early endosome
  • Endocytosis
  • Exosomes
  • Late endosome
  • Multivesicular body
  • Phagosome

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Structural Biology
  • Biochemistry
  • Molecular Biology
  • Genetics
  • Cell Biology

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