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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Mol. Biosci.
Sec. Lipids, Membranes and Membranous Organelles
Volume 11 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fmolb.2024.1415909

Do extracellular vesicles have specific target cells?; Extracellular vesicle mediated embryo maternal communication

Provisionally accepted
Keerthie Dissanayake Keerthie Dissanayake 1,2,3Kasun Godakumara Kasun Godakumara 1,2Subhashini Muhandiram Subhashini Muhandiram 2Suranga Kodithuwakku Suranga Kodithuwakku 2,4Alireza Fazeli Alireza Fazeli 1,2,5*
  • 1 Institute of Biomedicine and Translational Medicine, University of Tartu, Tartu, Tartu County, Estonia
  • 2 Institute of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Sciences,, Estonian University of Life Sciences, Tartu, Estonia
  • 3 Department of Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine, University of Peradeniya, Peradeniya, Central Province, Sri Lanka
  • 4 Department of Animal Science, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Peradeniya, Peradeniya, Central Province, Sri Lanka
  • 5 Division of Clinical Medicine, School of Medicine & Population Health, The University of Sheffield, Sheffield, England, United Kingdom

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

    Extracellular vesicles (EVs) serve as messengers for intercellular communication, yet the precise mechanisms by which recipient cells interpret EV messages remain incompletely understood. In this study, we explored how the origin of EVs, their protein cargo, and the recipient cell type influence the cellular response to EVs within an embryo implantation model. We treated two types of EVs to 6 different recipient cell types and expression of zinc finger protein 81 (ZNF81) gene expression in the recipient cells were quantified using quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). The results showed that downregulation of the ZNF81 gene is a specific cellular response of receptive endometrial epithelial cells to trophoblast derived EVs. Protein cargo analysis revealed that the proteomic profile of EVs depends on their cell of origin and therefore may affect the recipient cell response to EVs. Furthermore, trophoblastic EVs were found to be specifically enriched with transcription factors such as CTNNB1 (catenin beta-1), HDAC2 (histone deacetylase 2), and NOTCH1 (neurogenic locus notch homolog protein 1), which are known regulators of ZNF81 gene expression. This enrichment suggests a potential association between these transcription factors and the specific functionality of trophoblastic EVs. The current study provided compelling evidence supporting the existence of EV specificity, where the characteristics of both the EVs and the recipient cell type collectively contribute to regulating EV target specificity. This in vitro embryo implantation model and ZNF81 read-out provides a unique platform to study EV specific functionality in natural cell-cell communication.

    Keywords: extracellular vesicles, Embryo Implantation, Zinc Finger Protein 81, Target specificity, Endometrial epithelial cells, trophoblast cells

    Received: 11 Apr 2024; Accepted: 21 Jun 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Dissanayake, Godakumara, Muhandiram, Kodithuwakku and Fazeli. 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: Alireza Fazeli, Institute of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Sciences,, Estonian University of Life Sciences, Tartu, Estonia

    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.