Milk exosomes: beyond dietary microRNAs

Janos Zempleni

doi:10.1186/s12263-017-0562-6

Abstract

Extracellular vesicles deliver a variety of cargos to recipient cells, including the delivery of cargos in dietary vesicles from bovine milk to non-bovine species. The rate of discovery in this important line of research is slowed by a controversy whether the delivery and bioactivity of a single class of vesicle cargos, microRNAs, are real or not. This opinion paper argues that the evidence in support of the bioavailability of microRNAs encapsulated in dietary exosomes outweighs the evidence produced by scholars doubting that phenomenon is real. Importantly, this paper posits that the time is ripe to look beyond microRNA cargos and pursue innovative pathways through which dietary exosomes alter metabolism. Here, we highlight potentially fruitful lines of exploration.

Highlights

Extracellular vesicles deliver a variety of cargos to recipient cells, including the delivery of cargos in dietary vesicles from bovine milk to non-bovine species
A report that bovine milk exosomes can be detected in virtually all peripheral tissues was based on studies that lacked vehicle controls [26]; the widespread distribution of bovine milk exosomes among tissues in non-bovine species awaits confirmation
(3) Feeding a diet depleted of bovine milk exosomes and microRNAs caused a more than 60% decrease in plasma microRNAs compared with controls [39]

Summary

Introduction

Extracellular vesicles deliver a variety of cargos to recipient cells, including the delivery of cargos in dietary vesicles from bovine milk to non-bovine species. This paper focuses on exosomes due to their essential roles in cell-to-cell communication through shuttling a variety of cargos among tissues [1, 5,6,7,8,9]. Cargos include various species of coding and non-coding RNAs, proteins, and lipids [8, 19,20,21,22].

Results

Conclusion