Abstract
Septic shock increases vascular permeability, leading to multiple organ failure including cardiac dysfunction, a major contributor to septic death. Podosome, an actin-based dynamic membrane structure, plays critical roles in extracellular matrix degradation and angiogenesis. However, whether podosome contributes to endothelial barrier dysfunction during septic shock remains unknown. In this study, we found that the endothelial hyperpermeability, stimulated by phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate and thrombin, was accompanied by increased formation of podosome clusters at the cell periphery, indicating a positive correlation between podosome clusters and endothelial leakage. Interestingly, we observed that circulating exosomes collected from septic mice were able to stimulate podosome cluster formation in cardiac endothelial cells, together with increased permeability in vitro/in vivo and cardiac dysfunction. Mechanistically, we identified that septic exosomes contained higher levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS) than normal ones, which were effectively transported to endothelial cells (ECs). Depletion of ROS in septic exosomes significantly reduced their capacity for promoting podosome cluster formation and thereby dampened vascular leakage. Finally, we elucidated that podosome cluster-induced endothelial hyperpermeability was associated with fragmentation/depletion of zonula occludens-1 (ZO-1) at the cell periphery. Our results demonstrate that septic exosomes were enriched with high amounts of ROS, which can be transported to ECs, leading to the generation of podosome clusters in target ECs and thereby, causing ZO-1 relocation, vascular leakage, and cardiac dysfunction.