Abstract
Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are nano-sized vesicles composed of proteolipid bilayers carrying various molecular signatures of the cells. As mediators of intercellular communications, EVs have gained great attention as new therapeutic agents in the field of nanomedicine. Therefore, many studies have explored the roles of cell-derived EVs isolated from cultured hepatocytes or stem cells as inducer of liver proliferation and regeneration under various pathological circumstances. However, study investigating the role of EVs directly isolated from liver tissue has not been performed. Herein, to understand the pathophysiological role and to investigate the therapeutic potential of in vivo liver EVs, we isolated EVs from both normal and carbon tetrachloride (CCl(4))-induced damaged in vivo liver tissues. The in vivo EVs purified from liver tissues display typical features of EVs including spherical morphology, nano-size, and enrichment of tetraspanins. Interestingly, administration of both normal and damaged liver EVs significantly accelerated the recovery of liver tissue from CCl(4)-induced hepatic necrosis. This restorative action was through the induction of hepatocyte growth factor at the site of the injury. These results suggest that not only normal liver EVs but also damaged liver EVs play important pathophysiological roles of maintaining homeostasis after tissue damage. Our study, therefore, provides new insight into potentially developing in vivo EV-based therapeutics for preventing and treating liver diseases.