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. 2023 Mar 9:14:1107150.
doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2023.1107150. eCollection 2023.

Release of exosomes in polytraumatized patients: The injury pattern is reflected by the surface epitopes

Birte Weber  1 , Dirk Henrich  1 , Cora Rebecca Schindler  1 , Ingo Marzi  1 , Liudmila Leppik  1
Affiliations

Release of exosomes in polytraumatized patients: The injury pattern is reflected by the surface epitopes

Birte Weber et al. Front Immunol. .

Abstract

Background: Trauma is still a leading cause of morbidity and mortality, especially in the younger population. Trauma patients need a precise, early diagnostic to avoid complications like multiorgan failure and sepsis. Exosomes were described as markers and mediators in trauma. The aim of the present study was to analyze, whether the surface epitopes of plasma-exosomes can reflect the injury pattern in polytrauma.

Material and methods: Polytraumatized patients (Injury Severity Score = ISS ≥16, n = 38) were subdivided according to the predominant injury in either abdominal trauma, chest trauma or traumatic brain injury (TBI). Plasma exosomes were isolated via size exclusion chromatography. The concentration and size distribution of the plasma exosomes from emergency room samples were measured by nanoparticle tracking analysis. The exosomal surface antigens were investigated by bead-based multiplex flow cytometry and compared with healthy controls (n=10).

Results: In contrast to other studies, we did not observe an increase in the total amount of plasma exosomes in polytrauma patients (1,15x109 vs. 1,13x109 particles/ml), but found changes in the exosomal surface epitopes. We found a significant reduction of CD42a+ (platelet-derived) exosomes in polytrauma patients, CD209+ (dendritic cell-derived) exosomes in the patients with predominant abdominal trauma, and CD11+ (monocyte-derived) exosomes in the patients with chest trauma. The group of patients with TBI was characterized in contrast by an increase of CD62p+ (endothelial/platelet-derived) exosomes (*p<0.05).

Conclusion: Our data showed that the polytrauma injury pattern might be reflected by the cellular origin/surface epitopes of plasma-released exosomes immediately after trauma. The observed reduction of CD42+ exosomes in polytrauma patients was not associated with a reduction of total platelets in polytrauma patients.

Keywords: MACSPlex; abdominal trauma; exosomes; extracellular vesicles; polytrauma; size exclusion chromatography; thoracic trauma; traumatic brain injury.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Characterization of exosomes. (A) Concentration and size distribution of exosomes isolated from patients and healthy volunteers’ plasma, nanoparticle tracking analysis (NTA); (B) CD63, CD81 and CD9 expression in plasma-isolated exosomes from healthy volunteers (Lines 1-4) and polytrauma patients (Lines 5-7), Representative Western-blot analysis.
Figure 2
Figure 2
MACSPlex analysis of exosomal surface epitopes. (A) Representative image of MACSPlex exosomes flow cytometry analysis, polytrauma patient exosomes sample. (B) the higher amount of CD62p+ exosomes were detected in the plasma of polytrauma patients. (C) Amount of CD42a+ exosomes were significantly reduced in polytrauma patients as compared to the healthy controls. (D) the quantity of CD8+ exosomes were lower in patients’ plasma samples. PT = polytrauma (ISS≥16, n=10), healthy volunteers (n=10), *p <0.05. n = 10.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Exosomal surface epitopes expression in the patients’ subgroups. (A) The number of CD3+ exosomes were significantly reduced in polytrauma patients’ group. (B) Amount of SSEA-4+ exosomes were significantly reduced in all groups of patients except TBI. (C) CD209+exosomes are significantly reduced in abdominal trauma group of patients. (D) CD11c+ exosomes were significantly reduced in TXT patients’ group. (E) the number of CD62p+ exosomes were significantly increased in TBI patients. *p ≤ 0.05 and **p≤ 0.01. PT = polytrauma (n=7), healthy volunteers (n=10), TBI, traumatic brain injury (n=7); Abdo, abdominal trauma (n=7); TXT, thoracic trauma (n=7).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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