Macrophage Microvesicles Induce Macrophage Differentiation and miR-223 Transfer

We characterized macrophage-derived microvesicles and whether they influenced the differentiation of naïve monocytes. We also identified the miRNA content of the macrophage-derived microvesicles.

Microvesicles bind to and activate target cells.

All experiments were done in triplicates. Primary monocytes were collected from buffy coats (BC). The freshly isolated monocytes from three donors (Mono1-3) were either treated with GM-CSF or subjected to RNA isolation. Following treatment, MVs were isolated from the GM-CSF-treated macrophage cultures. RNA was isolated from the remaining cells for profiling (GM1-3). The isolated MVs were then used to treat new BC monocytes for 24 h (BC-GMCSF-MV24). A fraction of the new BC monocytes was subjected to RNA extraction for profiling (BC1-3). For THP1 cells, they were treated with either DMSO or PMA to produce MVs. The MVs were collected and the remaining cells lyzed for RNA extraction and profiling (DMSO1-3 and PMA1-3). The collected MVs from the DMSO or PMA-treated THP1 cells were incubated with new THP1 for 24 h and designated DMSO-MV24 or PMA-MV24. We had a total of 24 samples.

We used GeneChip microarrays to examine changes in gene expression induced by MV in primary monocyte-derived macrophages (MDM) and in THP1 cells, and compare this to cells treated with GM-CSF and PMA, respectively.