Abstract
Intercellular communication in the central nervous system (CNS) is essential for brain growth, development, and homeostasis maintenance and, when dysfunctional, is involved in the occurrence and development of neurodegenerative diseases. Increasing evidence indicates that extracellular vesicles, especially exosomes, are critical mediators of intercellular signal transduction. Under physiological and pathological conditions, neural cells secret exosomes with the influence of many factors. These exosomes can carry specific proteins, lipids, nucleic acids, and other bioactive substances to the recipient cells to regulate their function. Depending on the CNS environment, as well as the origin and physiological or pathological status of parental cells, exosomes can mediate a variety of different effects, including synaptic plasticity, nutritional metabolic support, nerve regeneration, inflammatory response, anti-stress effect, cellular waste disposal, and the propagation of toxic components, playing an important role in health and neurodegenerative diseases. This review will discuss the possible roles of exosomes in CNS intercellular communication in both physiologic and neurodegenerative conditions.
Highlights
Normal functions of the central nervous system (CNS) rely critically on the exchange and integration of information among neural cells, including neurons, microglia, astrocytes, and oligodendrocytes
While exosomes are derived from intraluminal vesicles (ILVs) formed in the multivesicular bodies (MVBs) that are released into the extracellular milieu by the fusion of MVBs and plasma membrane (PM) (Russell et al, 2019)
This study found that the basic fibroblast growth factor, a family of pleiotropic growth and differentiation factors, could increase the MVB-PM fusion and the release of exosomes in cultured hippocampal neurons (Kumar et al, 2020)
Summary
Normal functions of the central nervous system (CNS) rely critically on the exchange and integration of information among neural cells, including neurons, microglia, astrocytes, and oligodendrocytes. Cell-to-cell communication can be mediated by direct intercellular contact or the release of bioactive factors (Raposo and Stoorvogel, 2013). Extracellular vesicles (EVs), especially exosomes, have attracted growing attention as a new intercellular communication mechanism. According to biological origin and size, EVs can be divided into three categories: apoptotic bodies (500–2000 nm), microvesicles (200–2000 nm), and exosomes (40–200 nm) (Shao et al, 2018). Apoptotic bodies are specific vesicles budding from the plasma membrane (PM) during the process of apoptosis (Todorova et al, 2017). While exosomes are derived from intraluminal vesicles (ILVs) formed in the multivesicular bodies (MVBs) that are released into the extracellular milieu by the fusion of MVBs and PM (Russell et al, 2019). The biogenesis process and major features of exosomes are presented below (Figure 1 and Table 1)
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