Background: Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a highly prevalent clinical disorder with significant mortality and no current treatment. The Burns Lab has previously shown that endothelial colony forming cells (ECFCs) release exosomes highly enriched in pro-survival micro-RNA-486-5p. In our mouse model of AKI, intravenous (i.v.) injection of ECFCs or their exosomes protects against kidney ischemic injury, associated with reduction in PTEN, a target of miR-486-5p. Mechanisms mediating recruitment and retention of exosomes are unclear. The interaction of CXC chemokine receptor type 4 (CXCR4) with stromal cell-derived factor (SDF)-1α promotes ECFC adhesion and migration in hypoxic endothelial cells. Whether exosomal miR-486-5p is critical to the prevention of ischemic injury is unclear. The current study aimed to investigate biodistribution and targeting mechanisms of ECFC-derived exosomes, to investigate the delivery and therapeutic potential of miR-486-5p alone, and to determine whether sex differences alter the treatment efficacy. Methods: ECFC-derived exosomes were isolated from cultured media by differential centrifugation and characterized using nanoparticle tracking analysis and immunoblot. Kidney ischemic injury was induced in male and female FVB mice by bilateral renal vascular clamping (30 min). Exosomes (20 µg) or Invivofectamine-mimic complex containing miR-486-5p (1mg/kg) were injected at the start of kidney reperfusion via tail vein. Organs were removed and assays were performed to identify structure and function. In vitro cell studies were also used when necessary. Results: ECFC-derived exosomes preferentially target the ischemic kidney, its endothelium and tubular epithelium, which correlates with increases in miR-486-5p. The transfer of exosomes may be mediated by macropinocytosis by target cells. The SDF-1α/CXCR4 axis plays a role in targeting exosomes to the site of injury. miR-486-5p alone has a similar therapeutic efficacy in preventing ischemia/reperfusion injury as ECFC-exosomes in the mouse model of AKI. Both male and female mice respond to both therapies, however female mice are protected against ischemia reperfusion injury. Conclusions: These results suggest that the protective effects of ECFCs or their exosomes in ischemic AKI may be largely mediated by pro-survival miR-486-5p. These data provide further support for the promising therapeutic potential of ECFC-derived exosomes and miR-486-5p in human AKI.

Les accidents vasculaires cérébraux (AVC) représentent l’une des premières causes de morbi-mortalité dans les pays industrialisés et sont en constante augmentation. Pour l’heure, aucune autre thérapie que la thrombolyse intraveineuse n’est validée, or moins de 10% des patients y sont éligibles.Les premiers essais de thérapie régénérative par greffe de progéniteurs endothéliaux ont montré leur efficacité au niveau préclinique sur la récupération fonctionnelle, mais très peu de cellules parviennent jusqu’au site de la lésion pour y exercer leurs effets. De précédents travaux ont montré que l’érythropoïétine (EPO) augmentait la mobilisation et la prolifération de progéniteurs endothéliaux depuis la moelle osseuse, ainsi que leur adressage vers les sites ischémiés in vivo.Nous avons formulé l’hypothèse que l’EPO pouvait permettre aux progéniteurs endothéliaux vrais (ECFCs) d’atteindre le site ischémié en plus grand nombre pour y exercer un effet plus important, plus rapidement. Nous avons donc décidé d’évaluer trois stratégies d’optimisation : coadministration d’ECFCs et d’EPO, administration d’ECFCs prétraités à l’EPO, et enfin coadministration d’ECFCs et d’un dérivé de l’EPO dénué d’effet hématopoïétique. Pour nos derniers travaux, nous nous sommes aidés de l’imagerie isotopique µSPECT/CT pour quantifier l’adressage au niveau de la lésion des ECFCs avec ou sans optimisation pharmacologique à l’EPO, et évaluer longitudinalement leurs effets bénéfiques sur la rupture de la barrière hémato-encéphalique, l’apoptose cérébrale et le débit sanguin cérébral résiduel, en complément des techniques référentes et de l’évaluation clinique neurofonctionnelle. / Stroke represents a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in industrialized countries and prevalence steadily increases. For now, no other therapy that intravenous thrombolysis is validated, still, less than 10% of patients are eligible.The first preclinical regenerative therapy trials using endothelial progenitor cells engraftment gave evidence of their efficacy on functional recovery, although very few cells reached the site of injury to exert their effects are. Previous works showed that erythropoietin (EPO) increased mobilization and proliferation of endothelial progenitor cells from bone marrow, as well as their homing to the ischemic sites in vivo.We hypothesized that EPO could enable true endothelial progenitor cells (ECFCs) to reach the ischemic site in larger quantity, faster, to exercise a greater effect. We decided to evaluate three optimization strategies: coadministration of ECFCs and EPO, administration of EPO-pretreated ECFCs, and finally coadministration of ECFCs and an EPO derivative devoid of hematopoietic effect.In this work, we used μSPECT/CT imaging to quantify the ECFCs homing to the ischemic site with or without EPO optimization after cerebral ischemia, and longitudinally assessed their beneficial effects on blood-brain barrier disruption, cerebral apoptosis and residual cerebral blood flow, complementary to the referent techniques and neurofunctional clinical evaluation.

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Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Recent preclinical reports have provided evidence that endothelial colony forming cells (ECFCs), a subset of endothelial progenitor cells, significantly improve vessel formation, largely due to their robust vasculogenic potential. While it has been known that the Rho family GTPase Cdc42 is involved in this ECFC-driven vessel formation process, the effect of extracellular matrix (ECM) stiffness on its activity during vessel formation is largely unknown. Using a fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET)-based Cdc42 biosensor, we examined the spatio-temporal activity of Cdc42 of ECFCs in three-dimensional (3D) collagen matrices with varying stiffness. The result revealed that ECFCs exhibited an increase in Cdc42 activity in a soft (150 Pa) matrix, while they were much less responsive in a rigid (1 kPa) matrix. In both soft and rigid matrices, Cdc42 was highly activated near vacuoles. However, its activity is higher in a soft matrix than that in a rigid matrix. The observed Cdc42 activity was closely associated with vacuole formation. Soft matrices induced higher Cdc42 activity and faster vacuole formation than rigid matrices. However, vacuole area is not dependent on the stiffness of matrices. Time courses of Cdc42 activity and vacuole formation data revealed that Cdc42 activity proceeds vacuole formation. Collectively, these results suggest that matrix stiffness is critical in regulating Cdc42 activity in ECFCs and its activation is an important step in early vacuole formation.