Study proves the cells can send out Eph ephrins and to transmit signals -
Eph receptors and their partner proteins, ephrins are essential for intercellular communication. In the developing brain, they guide the young neurons to cells by repulsion right partners. They also play an important role in cell migration, regeneration, neurodegenerative diseases and the development of cancer. Until recently, scientists assumed that ephrin / Eph signal transmission can occur through direct contact from cell to cell. However, Rüdiger Klein and his team at the Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology have shown that cells can also pack and release ephrins assets and Eph receptors by extracellular vesicles. Not only is this discovery to improve our understanding of this communication system, it can also pave the way for new therapeutic strategies.
The human body contains up to 100 billion cells. As they grow, migrate, replicate and move, these cells come into contact with countless other cells and exchanging information with them. One way of this communication is done by the system of ephrin / Eph-receptor, which is capable of guiding the cell migration and growth of neuronal extensions. Moreover, the Eph-ephrin system also plays a role in plastic processes, such as learning and regeneration, as well as in tumor growth, and neurodegenerative diseases.
Eph receptors and their binding partners, ephrins, are found on the surface of almost all cell types. When ephrin meeting the Eph receptor of another cell, they join to form an ephrin-Eph complex. This triggers processes in one or both cells that generally lead to internalization of the complex and repulsion of a cell away from another. The cell repulsed moves or grows in another direction, then. In the nervous system, many of these interactions guide young extensions of neurons to their right destinations.
"This is why it is so fundamentally important to understand how cells use this system to communicate," says Rüdiger Klein, whose Department at the Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology and studying ephrins Eph receptors . It had always seemed obvious that ephrins and Eph could trigger direct contact by signaling process between two cells Recently, however, the ephrin and Eph receptors have also been found in extracellular vesicles / exosomes. - small fat droplets released by the cells, used as transport vehicles, transmitters of signals or to remove cellular components. "this laid the interesting question of what business and Eph ephrins have in exosomes," says Klein.
Intrigued, the team based in Martinsried developed an experimental study developed to purify exosomes from different cell types, including neurons, and analyze their contents. They showed that many of these exosomes contain ephrin and Eph, and decoded the cellular mechanism by which they were packed in exosomes. Interestingly, further analysis showed that Eph receptors had not been dumped as waste, but remained active on exosomes. The eph receptors on exosomes were able to bind to ephrin molecules on the surface of developing neurons and neuronal repel. This proves for the first time that cells can send ephrin and Eph off for transmitting signals over a distance. "It opens up a range of new possibilities," says Rüdiger Klein. Ephrin and Eph receptors have also been found in the exosomes of cancer cells. "This could mean that strategies to control the release of exosomes could be used to interrupt the way signaling and ephrin-Eph thus disturbing the tumor growth ", it conjecture.
The human body contains up to 100 billion cells. As they grow, migrate, replicate and move, these cells come into contact with countless other cells and exchanging information with them. One way of this communication is done by the system of ephrin / Eph-receptor, which is capable of guiding the cell migration and growth of neuronal extensions. Moreover, the Eph-ephrin system also plays a role in plastic processes, such as learning and regeneration, as well as in tumor growth, and neurodegenerative diseases.
Eph receptors and their binding partners, ephrins, are found on the surface of almost all cell types. When ephrin meeting the Eph receptor of another cell, they join to form an ephrin-Eph complex. This triggers processes in one or both cells that generally lead to internalization of the complex and repulsion of a cell away from another. The cell repulsed moves or grows in another direction, then. In the nervous system, many of these interactions guide young extensions of neurons to their right destinations.
"This is why it is so fundamentally important to understand how cells use this system to communicate," says Rüdiger Klein, whose Department at the Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology and studying ephrins Eph receptors . It had always seemed obvious that ephrins and Eph could trigger direct contact by signaling process between two cells Recently, however, the ephrin and Eph receptors have also been found in extracellular vesicles / exosomes. - small fat droplets released by the cells, used as transport vehicles, transmitters of signals or to remove cellular components. "this laid the interesting question of what business and Eph ephrins have in exosomes," says Klein.
Intrigued, the team based in Martinsried developed an experimental study developed to purify exosomes from different cell types, including neurons, and analyze their contents. They showed that many of these exosomes contain ephrin and Eph, and decoded the cellular mechanism by which they were packed in exosomes. Interestingly, further analysis showed that Eph receptors had not been dumped as waste, but remained active on exosomes. The eph receptors on exosomes were able to bind to ephrin molecules on the surface of developing neurons and neuronal repel. This proves for the first time that cells can send ephrin and Eph off for transmitting signals over a distance. "It opens up a range of new possibilities," says Rüdiger Klein. Ephrin and Eph receptors have also been found in the exosomes of cancer cells. "This could mean that strategies to control the release of exosomes could be used to interrupt the way signaling and ephrin-Eph thus disturbing the tumor growth ", it conjecture.
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