Differentiation of Monocytes into Phenotypically Distinct Macrophages After Treatment with Human Cord Blood Stem Cell (CB-SC)-Derived Exosomes

Summary

Exosome application is an emerging tool for drug development and regenerative medicine. We establish an exosome isolation protocol with high purity to isolate exosomes from novel identified stem cells called CB-SC for mechanistic studies. We also coculture CB-SC-derived exosomes with human monocytes, leading to their differentiation into phenotypically distinct macrophages.

Abstract

Stem Cell Educator (SCE) therapy is a novel clinical approach for the treatment of type 1 diabetes and other autoimmune diseases. SCE therapy circulates the isolated patient’s blood mononuclear cells (e.g., lymphocytes and monocytes) through an apheresis machine, co-cultures the patient’s blood mononuclear cells with adherent cord blood-derived stem cells (CB-SC) in the SCE device, and then returns these “educated” immune cells to the patient’s blood. Exosomes are nano-sized extracellular vesicles between 30‒150 nm existing in all biofluid and cell culture media. To further explore molecular mechanisms underlying SCE therapy and determine the actions of exosomes released from CB-SC, we investigate which cells phagocytize these exosomes during the treatment with CB-SC. By co-culturing Dio-labeled CB-SC-derived exosomes with human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC), we found that CB-SC-derived exosomes were predominantly taken up by human CD14-positive monocytes, leading to the differentiation of monocytes into type 2 macrophages (M2), with spindle-like morphology and expression of M2-associated surface molecular markers. Here, we present a protocol for the isolation and characterization of CB-SC-derived exosomes and the protocol for the co-culture of CB-SC-derived exosomes with human monocytes and the monitoring of M2 differentiation.

Introduction

Cord blood stem cells (CB-SC) are unique type of stem cells identified from human cord blood and are distinguished from other known types of stem cells such as mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) and hematopoietic stem cells (HSC)¹. Based on their unique properties of immune modulation and their ability to tightly adhere to the surface of Petri dishes, we developed a new technology designated as Stem Cell Educator (SCE) therapy in clinical trials^2,3. During SCE therapy, a patient’s peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) are collected and circulated through a cell separator and co-cult....

Protocol

The protocol follows the guidelines of institutional human research ethics committee at Center for Discovery and Innovation, Hackensack Meridian Health. Human buffy coat blood units were purchased from the New York Blood Center (New York, NY). Human umbilical cord blood units were collected from healthy donors and purchased from Cryo-Cell International blood bank (Oldsmar, FL). Both New York Blood Center and Cryo-Cell have received all accreditations for blood collections and distributions, with IRB approval and signed C.......

Discussion

Application of exosomes is an emerging field for clinical diagnosis, drug developments and regenerative medicine. Here, we present a detailed protocol regarding the preparation of CB-SC-derived exosomes and the functional study of exosomes on the differentiation of human monocytes. The current protocol demonstrated that functional CB-SC-derived exosomes are isolated by sequential centrifugation and ultracentrifugation with high purity and exhibiting the immune modulation on monocytes.

As compa.......

Materials

Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
1.5 ml Microcentrifuge tube	Fisher Scientific	05-408-129
15 ml conical tube	Falcon	352196
24-well plate	Falcon	351147	Non-tissue culture plate
3,3'-Diostadecyloxacarbocyanine perchlorate(Dio)	Millipore sigma	D4292-20MG	Store at 4 °C
300 Mesh Grids	Ted Pella	1GC300
50 mL conical tube	Falcon	352070
6-well plate	Falcon	353046	Tissue culture plate
96-well plate	Falcon	353072	Tissue culture plate
ACK Lysis Buffer	Lonza	10-548E	100 ml
Amicon-15 10kDa Centrifuge Fliter Unit	Millipore sigma	UFC901024
Anti-Human Alix	Biolegend	634501	store at 4 °C, RRID: AB_2268110
Anti-Human Calnexin	Biolegend	699401	store at 4 °C, RRID: AB_2728519
Anti-Human CD11c antibody, Pe-Cy7	BD Bioscience	561356	store at 4 °C, RRID: AB_10611859
Anti-Human CD14 antibody, Karma Orange	Beckman Coulter	B36294	store at 4 °C, RRID: AB_2728099
Anti-Human CD163 antibody, PE	BD Bioscience	556018	store at 4 °C, RRID: AB_396296
Anti-Human CD19 antibody, PC5	Beckman Coulter	IM2643U	store at 4 °C, RRID: AB_131160
Anti-Human CD206 antibody, FITC	BD Bioscience	551135	store at 4 °C, RRID: AB_394065
Anti-Human CD209 antibody, Brilliant Violet 421	BD Bioscience	564127	store at 4 °C, RRID: AB_2738610
Anti-Human CD270 antibody, PE	Biolegend	318806	store at 4 °C, RRID: AB_2203703
Anti-Human CD3 antibody, Pacfic Blue	Biolegend	300431	store at 4 °C, RRID: AB_1595437
Anti-Human CD34 antibody, APC	Beckman Coulter	IM2427U	store at 4 °C, RRID: N/A
Anti-Human CD4 antibody, APC	BD Bioscience	555349	store at 4 °C, RRID: AB_398593
Anti-Human CD45 antibody, Pe-Cy7	Beckman Coulter	IM3548U	store at 4 °C, RRID: AB_1575969
Anti-Human CD56 antibody, PE	Beckman Coulter	IM2073U	store at 4 °C, RRID: AB_131195
Anti-Human CD63 antibody,PE	BD Bioscience	561925	store at 4 °C, RRID: AB_10896821
Anti-Human CD8 antibody, APC-Alexa Fluor 750	Beckman Coulter	A94686	store at 4 °C, RRID: N/A
Anti-Human CD80 antibody, APC	Beckman Coulter	B30642	store at 4 °C, RRID: N/A
Anti-Human CD81 antibody, FITC	BD Bioscience	561956	store at 4 °C, RRID: AB_394049
Anti-Human CD86 antibody, APC-Alexa Fluor 750	Beckman Coulter	B30646	store at 4 °C, RRID: N/A
Anti-Human CD9 antibody, FITC	ThermoScientic	MA5-16860	store at 4 °C, RRID: AB_2538339
Anti-Human Galectin 9 antibody, Brilliant Violet 421	Biolegend	348919	store at 4 °C, RRID: AB_2716134
Anti-Human OCT3/4 antibody, eFluor660	ThermoScientic	50-5841-82	store at 4 °C, RRID: AB_11218882
Anti-Human SOX2 antibody, Alexa Fluor 488	ThermoScientic	53-9811-82	store at 4 °C, RRID: AB_2574479
BCA Protein Assay Kit	ThermoFisher Scientific	23227
Bovine Serum Albumin	Millipore Sigma	A1933
Buffy coat	New York Blood Center		40-60 ml/unit
Cell scraper	Falcon	353085
Disposable semi-micro cuvette	VWR	97000590
Dissociation buffer	Gibco	131510014	100 ml
Dual-Chanber cell counting slides	Bio-Rad	1450015
Exosome-Human CD63 Detection reagent	ThermoFisher Scientific	10606D	store at 4 °C
Ficoll-Paque PLUS density grandient media	GE Health	17-1440-03	500 ml
Fixed-Angle Rotor(25°)	Thermo Scientifc	75003698	Maxium 24,700 x g
Gallios flow cytometer	Beckman Coulter		3 lasers 10 Color Max
Human cord blood	Cryo-Cell International		40-100 ml/unit
Human Fc Block	BD Bioscience	564220	store at 4 °C
Immun-Blot PVDF membrane	Bio-Rad	1620177
Millex-GP Syringe Filter Unit, 0.22 µm	Millipore Sigma	SLGP033RS
Optima XE-90 Ultracentriguge	Beckman Coulter
Orbital Shaker MP4	BioExpress	S-3500-1
PBS	ThermoFisher Scientific	10010049	500 ml
Propidium Iodide	BD Bioscience	56-66211E	store at 4 °C
Nikon Eclipse Ti2 microscope	Nikon instruments Inc	Eclipse Ti2	NIS-Elements software version 5.11.02
Hochest 33342	Thermo Scientifc	62249	5 ml
Revert microsopy	Fisher scientific	12563518
Rotor 41 Ti	Beckman Coulter	331362	Maxium 41,000 rpm
Sorvall St 16R Centrifuge	Thermo Scientifc	75004381
Swinging Bucket Rotor	Thermo Scientifc	75003655
TC-20 cell counter	Bio-Rad
ThermoScientific Forma 380 Steri Cycle CO2 Incubator	ThermoFisher Scientific
Transmission electron microscopy	JEOL	JEM-2100 PLUS
Ultracentrifuge tube	Beckman Coulter	331372
X'VIVO 15 Serum-free medium	Lonza	BEBP04-744Q	1000 ml Culture medium, store at 4 °C