This month's Laboratory Investigation has an interesting free article by Hood et al. exploring exosomes--nanoparticles formed by inward budding of microvesiclar bodies and released into the extracellular matrix as part of a nanoscale messenger system. The size of these particles (30-100nm) facilitates their penetration into cells at the invasive tumor front and they have been shown to participate in cell to cell communication such as morphogen and RNA transport between cells.
The authors' hypothesis is that melanoma exosomes act as "nanovehicles" (I love this term!) to prepare the microenvironment for tumor cell implantation. This article describes a unique in vitro angiogenesis assay system to study exosomes and their influence on endothelial cell tubulogenesis (i.e., early anagiogenic changes) and spheroid sprouting (a later stage of angiogenesis). This system also incorporates a novel method of tracking the trafficking of exosomes.
I know this is "out there" but I was not familiar with this topic at all and thought it fascinating.
P.S. Sorry for my recent prolonged absence from posting--teaching the second-year medical students some lung pathology.
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