Recently, it has become clear that exosomes act as messengers transferring information not only between cells, but also between tissues. Exosomes are very good candidates for serving as key developmental programming units as they contain several RNA species. Furthermore, several proteins which are important during kidney development have been found in relation to vesicles. In this study we use the mammalian kidney as a model system to investigate the role of exosomes during organogenesis.
Exosomes were isolated from a kidney cell line as well as primary embryonic kidney cells. We found that these vesicles show attraction to and are taken up by metanephric mesenchyme cells (cell line and primary cells). The exosomes do not only enter the cytoplasm, but over time can also be found inside the nucleus. Additionally, we were able to follow the transfer of the vesicular RNA into the cytoplasm of the cells. Preliminary results show that the incubation of these vesicles with primary embryonic metanephric mesenchyme seems to have an effect on the structure and organization of the cells.
Further studies should reveal more details on the proteomic and RNA cargo of the vesicles, and if the vesicles also influence the pathways commonly activated during nephrogenesis.