Spatial and temporal tracking of cardiac exosomes in mouse using a nano-luciferase-CD63 fusion protein. Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • Exosomes are secreted extracellular vesicles with lipid bilayer membranes. They are emerging as a new category of messengers that facilitate cross-talk between cells, tissues, and organs. Thus, a critical demand arises for the development of a sensitive and non-invasive tracking system for endogenous exosomes. We have generated a genetic mouse model that meets this goal. The Nano-luciferase (NanoLuc) reporter was fused with the exosome surface marker CD63 for exosome labeling. The cardiomyocyte-specific MHC promoter followed by the loxP-STOP-loxP cassette was engineered for temporal and spatial labeling of exosomes originated from cardiomyocytes. The transgenic mouse was bred with a tamoxifen-inducible Cre mouse (Rosa26Cre-ERT2) to achieve inducible expression of CD63NanoLuc reporter. The specific labeling and tissue distribution of endogenous exosomes released from cardiomyocytes were demonstrated by luciferase assay and non-invasive bioluminescent live imaging. This endogenous exosome tracking mouse provides a useful tool for a range of research applications.

published proceedings

  • Commun Biol

altmetric score

  • 5

author list (cited authors)

  • Luo, W., Dai, Y., Chen, Z., Yue, X., Andrade-Powell, K. C., & Chang, J.

citation count

  • 37

complete list of authors

  • Luo, Weijia||Dai, Yuan||Chen, Zhishi||Yue, Xiaojing||Andrade-Powell, Kelsey C||Chang, Jiang

publication date

  • January 2020