Fig. 6

Exosomes transfer RNAs to neurons and this is partly responsible for mediating neurite outgrowth. a Exosomes were labelled with SYTO® RNASelect™ green fluorescent dye and applied to NG108–15 neurons (+ exos). Control cultures were treated with DMEM. DAPI blue staining shows cell nuclei. b qRT-PCR was used to measure Gap43 mRNA, miR-182, and miR-21 levels in control NG108–15 cultures and those treated with Schwann cell-like differentiated adipose stem cell derived exosomes (+ dADSCs exos) or Schwann cell derived exosomes (+SCs exos). Relative expression levels compared with control NG108–15 cultures = 1. ***p < 0.001 significantly elevated levels compared with the control cultures. c Quantification of neurite outgrowth mediated by exosomes derived from Schwann cell-like differentiated adipose stem cells (+ dADSCs exos) and dADSCs derived exosomes treated with UV irradiation (+ UV dADSC exos). Parallel experiments were performed with exosomes from Schwann cells (+ SCs exos) and UV irradiated Schwann cell-derived exosomes (+ UV SCs exos), mean ± SEM, *p < 0.05 significantly shorter neurites in the presence of UV treated dADSCs exosomes compared with untreated dADSCs exosomes. n.s is not significantly different. Exosomes preparations were also heated to 98 °C for 10 min to denature the exosomal proteins (+ denat dADSCs exos, + denat SCs exo; ***p < 0.001 significantly shorter neurites compared with untreated exosomes)