Mining exosomal microRNAs from HiPSC-derived cardiomyocytes for cardiac regeneration

Myocardial infarction is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Recent advances in cardiac regenerative therapy have allowed for novel modalities in replenishing the damaged myocardium. However, poor long-term engraftment and survival of transplanted cells have largely precluded effective cell replacement. As an alternative to direct cell replacement, the release of paracrine protective factors may be a more plausible effector for cardioprotection which may partially be mediated through secretion of microvesicles, or exosomes, that contribute to cell-cell communication. Stanford University School of Medicine researchers describe the isolation of exosomes from induced pluripotent stem cells-derived cardiomyocytes for subsequent microRNA profiling for a better understanding of the biological cargo contained within exosomes.

Electropherogram of exosomal small RNAs isolated from iPSC-CMs conditioned medium measured by Bioanalyzer 2100 with the Small RNA assay

The electropherogram is plotted as fluorescence intensity (Y-axis) versus size (X-axis). Two distinct regions are defined with the Small RNA assay including small RNA region from 0 to 150 nt (delineated by dashed green lines) and the microRNA region from 10 to 40 nt (delineated by dotted gray lines). Nearly 40% of miRNAs were detected for this particular sample. The data can also be displayed as a densitometry plot as shown on the right