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  • Assessment of separation methods for extracellular vesicles from human and mouse brain tissues and human cerebrospinal fluids.

Assessment of separation methods for extracellular vesicles from human and mouse brain tissues and human cerebrospinal fluids.

Methods (San Diego, Calif.) (2020-02-09)
Satoshi Muraoka, Weiwei Lin, Mei Chen, Samuel W Hersh, Andrew Emili, Weiming Xia, Tsuneya Ikezu
ABSTRACT

Extracellular vesicle (EV) is a unified terminology of membrane-enclosed vesicular species ubiquitously secreted by almost every cell type and present in all body fluids. They carry a cargo of lipids, metabolites, nucleic acids and proteins for their clearance from cells as well as for cell-to-cell communications. The exact composition of EVs and their specific functions are not well understood due to the underdevelopment of the separation protocols, especially those from the central nervous system including animal and human brain tissues as well as cerebrospinal fluids, and the low yield of proteins in the separated EVs. To understand their exact molecular composition and their functional roles, development of the reliable protocols for EV separation is necessary. Here we report the methods for EV separation from human and mouse unfixed frozen brain tissues by a sucrose step gradient ultracentrifugation method, and from human cerebrospinal fluids by an affinity capture method. The separated EVs were assessed for morphological, biophysical and proteomic properties of separated EVs by nanoparticle tracking analysis, transmission electron microscopy, and labeled and label-free mass spectrometry for protein profiling with step-by-step protocols for each assessment.

MATERIALS
Product Number
Brand
Product Description

Sigma-Aldrich
DL-Dithiothreitol, BioUltra, for molecular biology, ≥99.5% (RT)
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Methanol, suitable for HPLC, ≥99.9%
Corning® Costar® Spin-X® centrifuge tube filters, cellulose acetate membrane, pore size 0.45 μm, sterile
Sigma-Aldrich
Corning® Costar® Spin-X® centrifuge tube filters, cellulose acetate membrane, pore size 0.22 μm, sterile
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Nitrilotriacetic acid disodium salt, Sigma Grade, ≥99%
Sigma-Aldrich
Tetraethylammonium borohydride, technical, ≥95% (T)
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Acetonitrile, suitable for HPLC, gradient grade, ≥99.9%
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