Líffræðifélag Íslands - biologia.is
Líffræðiráðstefnan 2017

Erindi/veggspjald / Talk/poster V26

Isolation of exosomes using ultracentrifugation and size exclusion chromatography for their potential use as nano-drug carriers

Höfundar / Authors: Aníta Björk Sigurðardóttir (1), Sarah Sophie Steinhaeuser (2, 3), Berglind Eva Benediktsdóttir (1, 3)

Starfsvettvangur / Affiliations: 1. University of Iceland, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, 2. University of Iceland, Faculty of Medicine, 3. Biomedical Center, University of Iceland

Kynnir / Presenter: Berglind Eva Benediktsdóttir

Exosomes are nano-sized vesicles released from human cells. They serve as an integrate crosstalk component between cells, carrying labile molecules such as proteins and miRNAs. Exosomes ability to carry these labile molecules in addition to having a long circulation half-life and their endogenous homing, has lead scientists to look more closely at them as feasible nano-drug carriers. A suitable method is needed for exosomal isolation that results in their pure, bioactive form in enough quantity for their use as a potential nano-drug carrier. The aim of this study was, therefore, to determine the feasibility of a method composed of ultracentrifugation (UC) followed by size exclusion chromatography (SEC) to isolate exosomes.
We show that UC-SEC was sufficient to isolate exosomes from the MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cell line. Exosomes eluted first in the SEC chromatogram (280 nm) and measured 20 nm as determined with transmission electron microscope. The exosomes were not contaminated with proteins from the endoplasmic reticulum and results from confocal strongly suggested that the exosomes maintained their uptake affinity and thus biological activity post-isolation. The UF-SEC clearly serves as a good method for exosomal isolation and will prove to be useful in future work using exosomes as a drug delivery vesicle.