Clarkson IB&B Ph.D student Ankita Samanta will present Small Extracellular Vesicles as a Potential Therapeutic Agent for Intervertebral Disc Degeneration.
Abstract: Intervertebral disc degeneration (IVDD) is a cause of chronic low back pain (LBP) in more than three million US adults per year. The intervertebral disc (IVD) is a semi-moveable joint in the vertebral column critical for shock absorption and spine flexibility. The healthy IVD is largely avascular with vasculature and innervation only reaching the outer AF. NP cells reside sparsely surrounded by a large amount of extracellular matrix (ECM) and depend on diffusion for nutrient access. Cell-cell communication likely depends on non-vascular and non-neural means. Small extracellular vesicles (EV) belong to a group of vesicles including larger EV and apoptotic bodies. To date, IVD small EV (sEV) research is still in its infancy. This study is the first to isolate and characterize the proteome of sEVs from early passage primary bovine IVD cells. SEM highresolution imaging, particle size analysis, and immunoblotting identified purified sEVs while mass spectrometry established a proteomic profile of the sEVs. We conducted a functional enrichment analysis through mass spectrometric proteome examination of sEVs produced by NP and other parent cell lines. Our objective was to determine whether non-NP parent cells could serve as an
adequate source for sEVs for regenerative cell therapy methods. Additionally, we identified 141 overrepresented proteins in sEVs from NP parent cells and 10 underrepresented proteins. Functional enrichment analysis revealed several biological processes related to ECM organization, cellular stress responses, and metabolic regulation. Furthermore, functional cluster analysis identified several protein clusters with specific functions in the NP. This could have important impacts on the development of cell-free IVDD therapies. In the future, we would like to explore the transcriptome profile of the sEV cargo to identify potential biomarkers unique to the cells of the IVD. We will also explore the therapeutic potential of sEVs by treating stressed IVD cells with sEVs isolated from healthy young IVD cells in 3D culture in order to assess therapeutic effect of sEVs in treating IVDD.
Thursday, November 21, 2024
11:00 am to 1:00 pm
Snell Hall 214
Zoom link:
https://clarkson.zoom.us/j/95227515293?pwd=jUpc2ChbvwjeagVmkSEv6t1QPT1goL.1