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Characterization of extracellular vesicles derived from mesenchymal stromal cells by surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy

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Abstract

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are secreted by all cells into bodily fluids and play an important role in intercellular communication through the transfer of proteins and RNA. There is evidence that EVs specifically released from mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) are potent cell-free regenerative agents. However, for MSC EVs to be used in therapeutic practices, there must be a standardized and reproducible method for their characterization. The detection and characterization of EVs are a challenge due to their nanoscale size as well as their molecular heterogeneity. To address this challenge, we have fabricated gold nanohole arrays of varying sizes and shapes by electron beam lithography. These platforms have the dual purpose of trapping single EVs and enhancing their vibrational signature in surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS). In this paper, we report SERS spectra for MSC EVs derived from pancreatic tissue (Panc-MSC) and bone marrow (BM-MSC). Using principal component analysis (PCA), we determined that the main compositional differences between these two groups are found at 1236, 761, and 1528 cm−1, corresponding to amide III, tryptophan, and an in-plane -C=C- vibration, respectively. We additionally explored several machine learning approaches to distinguish between BM- and Panc-MSC EVs and achieved 89 % accuracy, 89 % sensitivity, and 88 % specificity using logistic regression.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to gratefully thank the Nanofabrication Facility at the University of Western Ontario (Western University) for their assistance with the preparation of the platforms by electron-beam lithography.

Availability of data and material

The data sets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Funding

This research was supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Canada (DG RGPIN-2020-06676).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry, Centre for Advanced Materials and Biomaterials Research (CAMBR), University of Western Ontario (Western University), 1151 Richmond St, London, Ontario, N6A 5B7, Canada

    Nina M. Ćulum & François Lagugné-Labarthet

  2. Robarts Research Institute, Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Schulich School of medicine and Dentistry, University of Western Ontario (Western University), 1151 Richmond St, London, Ontario, N6A 5B7, Canada

    Tyler T. Cooper, Gillian I. Bell & David A. Hess

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  1. Nina M. Ćulum
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  2. Tyler T. Cooper
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  3. Gillian I. Bell
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  5. François Lagugné-Labarthet
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Contributions

Nina M. Ćulum: writing (original draft); investigation (nanofabrication and sample characterization); formal analysis; conceptualization.

Tyler T. Cooper: investigation (sample isolation and collection).

Gillian I. Bell: investigation (sample isolation and collection).

David A. Hess: supervision; conceptualization.

François Lagugné-Labarthet: supervision; writing (review and editing); conceptualization.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to François Lagugné-Labarthet.

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Ethics approval for the collection of human bone marrow was provided by the Western University Research Ethics Board (REB#12394).

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Informed written consent was acquired from all human bone marrow donors.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Ćulum, N.M., Cooper, T.T., Bell, G.I. et al. Characterization of extracellular vesicles derived from mesenchymal stromal cells by surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy. Anal Bioanal Chem 413, 5013–5024 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-021-03464-8

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