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BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article

Front. Bioeng. Biotechnol.
Sec. Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fbioe.2024.1436296
This article is part of the Research Topic Insights into the manufacturing, storage and transport of therapies for regenerative medicine: Challenges and Changing perspectives View all 4 articles

Effect of Controlled Release of HGF on Extracellular Vesicle Secretion by Urine-derived Stem Cells

Provisionally accepted
Abdelrahman Alwan Abdelrahman Alwan 1Fatma Khalil Fatma Khalil 1,2Joshua Bowlby Joshua Bowlby 1Gabrielle Peko Gabrielle Peko 1Valle Estrada Valle Estrada 1Sangeeta Singh Sangeeta Singh 3Gagan Deep Gagan Deep 3Yuanyuan Zhang Yuanyuan Zhang 1Alan C. Farney Alan C. Farney 4Emmanuel C. Opara Emmanuel C. Opara 1,5*
  • 1 Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine, School of Medicine, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, United States
  • 2 Department of Histology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, South Valley University, Qena, Qena, Egypt
  • 3 Department of Internal Medicine, School of Medicine, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, United States
  • 4 Department of General Surgery, School of Medicine, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, United States
  • 5 Virginia Tech - Wake Forest University, Blacksburg, Virginia, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    introduction: The hepatic growth factor (HGF) stimulates DNA synthesis and cell proliferation and plays a role in tissue protection and regeneration. In this study, we have examined the effect of incubation of HGF with urine-derived stem cells (USC) on the secretion of small extracellular vesicles (sEV) by the cells. Materials and Methods: HGF in the incubation medium was either a bolus administration or a controlled release of an equivalent amount from microbeads within the size range of 50-200 µm made with ultrapurified low viscosity high-guluronic acid (UP-LVG) alginate. The incubations of USC with or without HGF were 3 days or 7 days before removal of the incubation media for harvesting sEV by precipitation method. Protein content of isolated sEV was measured by BCA assay for these three groups: control (no HGF-beads), bolus HGF, and HGF-beads. We also performed nanoparticle-tracking analysis (NTA), Western Blot assay and ELISA for HGF content of samples. Results: We found a significantly higher concentration of proteins in the HGF microbeads (control release group) compared to the bolus group and the control group after 7 days (p<0.0017). The NTA data aligned with the BCA as it showed a significantly higher concentration of particles within the size range of sEV (<200 nm) in the group treated with HGF beads compared to the two other groups on day 7 (p<0.0001). Conclusion: we found that administration of HGF to USC by controlled release of the growth factor significantly enhances the levels of sEV secretion during 7 days of incubation.

    Keywords: Small extracellular vesicles, enhanced levels, Controlled Release, Hepatocyte Growth Factor, alginate microbeads

    Received: 21 May 2024; Accepted: 01 Aug 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Alwan, Khalil, Bowlby, Peko, Estrada, Singh, Deep, Zhang, Farney and Opara. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Emmanuel C. Opara, Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine, School of Medicine, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC 27157, North Carolina, United States

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.