Exosomal Transfer of Vasorin Expressed in Hepatocellular Carcinoma Cells Promotes Migration of Human Umbilical Vein Endothelial Cells

Aixue Huang, Jie Dong, Shaohua Li, Chaonan Wang, Hongmei Ding, Hui Li, Xueting Su, Xingfeng Ge, Leqiao Sun, Chenjun Bai, Xuelian Shen, Tao Fang, Jie Li^✉, Ningsheng Shao^✉

Beijing Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, Beijing 100850, China

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Citation:
Huang A, Dong J, Li S, Wang C, Ding H, Li H, Su X, Ge X, Sun L, Bai C, Shen X, Fang T, Li J, Shao N. Exosomal Transfer of Vasorin Expressed in Hepatocellular Carcinoma Cells Promotes Migration of Human Umbilical Vein Endothelial Cells. Int J Biol Sci 2015; 11(8):961-969. doi:10.7150/ijbs.11943. Available from https://www.ijbs.com/v11p0961.htm

Abstract

Vasorin (VASN) is a type I transmembrane protein that plays important roles in tumor development and vasculogenesis. In this paper, we showed that VASN could be a key mediator of communication between tumor cells and endothelial cells. We confirmed for the first time that HepG2-derived VASN can be transferred to human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) via receptor mediated endocytosis of exosomes, at least in part through HSPGs. The HepG2-derived VASN containing exosomes promote migration of recipient HUVECs cells. Our results identify a novel pathway by which a functional protein expressed in tumor cells affects the biological fate of endothelial cells via exosomes.

Keywords: Vasorin, exosomes, endocytosis, angiogenesis, tumor metastasis