Cells (Jun 2022)

Proteomic and Metabolomic Profiles of T Cell-Derived Exosomes Isolated from Human Plasma

  • Aneta Zebrowska,
  • Karol Jelonek,
  • Sujan Mondal,
  • Marta Gawin,
  • Katarzyna Mrowiec,
  • Piotr Widłak,
  • Theresa Whiteside,
  • Monika Pietrowska

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/cells11121965
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 11, no. 12
p. 1965

Abstract

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Exosomes that are released by T cells are key messengers involved in immune regulation. However, the molecular profiling of these vesicles, which is necessary for understanding their functions, requires their isolation from a very heterogeneous mixture of extracellular vesicles that are present in the human plasma. It has been shown that exosomes that are produced by T cells could be isolated from plasma by immune capture using antibodies that target the CD3 antigen, which is a key component of the TCR complex that is present in all T lymphocytes. Here, we demonstrate that CD3(+) exosomes that are isolated from plasma can be used for high-throughput molecular profiling using proteomics and metabolomics tools. This profiling allowed for the identification of proteins and metabolites that differentiated the CD3(+) from the CD3(−) exosome fractions that were present in the plasma of healthy donors. Importantly, the proteins and metabolites that accumulated in the CD3(+) vesicles reflected the known molecular features of T lymphocytes. Hence, CD3(+) exosomes that are isolated from human plasma by immune capture could serve as a “T cell biopsy”.

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