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Role of Extracellular Vesicles in Immunology: Second Edition

A special issue of International Journal of Molecular Sciences (ISSN 1422-0067). This special issue belongs to the section "Molecular Immunology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 April 2025) | Viewed by 725

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Institute for Biomedical Research and Innovation, National Research Council, Via Ugo La Malfa 153, 90146 Palermo, Italy
Interests: immune system; allergic diseases; extracellular vesicles; immunotherapy; nanoparticles
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute for Biomedical Research and Innovation, National Research Council of Italy (IRIB-CNR), Via Ugo La Malfa 153, 90146 Palermo, Italy
Interests: immune response; innate immunity; cell to cell communication; extracellular vesicles cargo; epigenetic modification; miRNA; environmental pollutants; immunotoxicity
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Cells can communicate in different ways by means of soluble factors or cell-to-cell contact; however, an increasing body of evidence has recently demonstrated that cells can communicate through the release of extracellular vesicles (EVs), including exosomes, microvesicles, and apoptotic bodies. EVs are particles composed of an outer lipid bilayer of variable sizes. During the immune response, they are selectively loaded with immune regulatory proteins, such as cytokines, making them important messengers in terms of delivering targeted biological signals. Vesicular signalling has now emerged as a critical component of innate immunity that orchestrates actions of multiple immune system cells in infectious and inflammatory diseases. It is interesting to note that EVs are highly heterogeneous concerning their composition, location, and function, as indicated by their parental cells. Cargo transfer regulates various cellular activities ranging from gene expression to metabolism. Of note, the number of EVs produced and the cargos loaded into these extracellular vesicles depend on the state (physiological or pathological) and microenvironment of the donor cells. Innovation has also opened the way to the relevance of EVs and their cargo content in human toxicology studies. Indeed, EVs isolated from patient body fluids have been studied in research concerning disease biomarkers and early diagnosis possibilities in inflammatory diseases such as atherosclerosis, Alzheimer’s disease, and rheumatoid arthritis.

In this Special Issue, we welcome manuscripts addressing original research and review papers as well as short communications highlighting the characteristics of EVs. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Immunological response (innate and adaptive immunity, including inflammation, antigen presentation, and the development and activation of B cells and T cells);
  • The characterization of EVs’ cargo content (microRNAs, lipids, mRNAs, etc.);
  • Next-generation drug delivery platforms;
  • Relevance of EVs in human toxicology studies.

Dr. Paolo Colombo
Dr. Valeria Longo
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Molecular Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

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Keywords

  • extracellular vesicles
  • exosomes
  • microvesicles
  • apoptotic bodies
  • cytokines
  • immunological response
  • immune system

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

24 pages, 3173 KiB  
Article
Extracellular Vesicles from Different Mesenchymal Stem Cell Types Exhibit Distinctive Surface Protein Profiling and Molecular Characteristics: A Comparative Analysis
by Atziri G. Fernández-Pérez, Azucena Herrera-González, Edgar J. López-Naranjo, Iliany Annel Martínez-Álvarez, David Uribe-Rodríguez, Daniel E. Ramírez-Arreola, María Judith Sánchez-Peña and Jose Navarro-Partida
Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2025, 26(7), 3393; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms26073393 - 4 Apr 2025
Viewed by 535
Abstract
The current medical need to respond to different diseases has sparked great interest in extracellular vesicles (EVs) derived from mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) due to their great regenerative potential and as drug carriers by playing a critical role in cell–cell communication. However, due [...] Read more.
The current medical need to respond to different diseases has sparked great interest in extracellular vesicles (EVs) derived from mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) due to their great regenerative potential and as drug carriers by playing a critical role in cell–cell communication. However, due to their heterogeneity, there is no standardized universal method for their identification and characterization, which limits their clinical application. This study, following the recommendations and methodologies proposed by MISEV2023 for the characterization of EVs, shows for the first time a detailed morphological, protein, and biochemical comparison between EVs derived from three different MSCs sources (placenta, endometrium, and dental pulp). The information obtained from the different applied assays suggests that there are substantial differences between one EVs source and another. It also offers valuable insights that provide the guidelines to ease their profiling and therefore improve their selection, in order to speed up their use and clinical application; additionally, the knowledge obtained from each characterization test could facilitate new researchers in the field to choose a specific cell source to obtain EVs and select the appropriate methods that provide the necessary information according to their requirements. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Role of Extracellular Vesicles in Immunology: Second Edition)
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