Sample Preparation and Imaging of Exosomes by Transmission Electron Microscopy

Summary

This protocol describes the various techniques necessary for transmission electron microscopy including negative staining, ultrathin sectioning for detailed structure, and immuno-gold labelling to determine the positions of specific proteins in exosomes.

Abstract

Exosomes are nano-sized extracellular vesicles secreted by body fluids and are known to represent the characteristics of cells that secrete them. The contents and morphology of the secreted vesicles reflect cell behavior or physiological status, for example cell growth, migration, cleavage, and death. The exosomes' role may depend highly on size, and the size of exosomes varies from 30 to 300 nm. The most widely used method for exosome imaging is negative staining, while other results are based on Cryo-Transmission Electron Microscopy, Scanning Electron Microscopy, and Atomic Force Microscopy. The typical exosome's morphology assessed through negative staining is a cup-shape, but further details are not yet clear. An exosome well-characterized through structural study is necessary particular in medical and pharmaceutical fields. Therefore, function-dependent morphology should be verified by electron microscopy techniques such as labeling a specific protein in the detailed structure of exosome. To observe detailed structure, ultrathin sectioned images and negative stained images of exosomes were compared. In this protocol, we suggest transmission electron microscopy for the imaging of exosomes including negative staining, whole mount immuno-staining, block preparation, thin section, and immuno-gold labelling.

Introduction

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are lipid bilayer vesicles secreted by cells, and their size ranges between 30 and 300 nm. EVs were first reported in 1978, with evidence from vesicles of patients with Hodgkin's disease¹. These vesicles were reported to be 40 to 120 nanometers in size. In 1980, it was reported that EVs are involved in the coagulation system and thrombosis, formation of a blood clot inside a blood vessel in cancer patients². After 30 years, EVs have been reported to be an important factor to promote tumor invasion, immune escape, and angiogenesis³. In addition, the functions of EVs....

Protocol

1. Block Preparation, Sectioning, Staining and Imaging of the Exosome

1. Pellet the exosomes from culture supernatant of HCT116 cells by centrifugation at 100,000 x g for 1.5 h²³. Remove the culture supernatant and carefully fix the purified exosome pellet with 1 mL of 2.5% glutaraldehyde in 0.1 M sodium cacodylate solution (pH 7.0) for 1 h at 4 °C. For 0.1 M sodium cacodylate, dissolve 4.28 g cacodylic acid in 160 mL of distilled water (DW). Adjust pH to 7.4 with 0.1 M HCl then make up to 200 mL with distilled water.
2. Remove the fixative and rinse the pellets with 1 mL of 0.1 M sodium cacodylate buffer at room temperature. Re....

Results

Currently, exosomes are classified into size and shape categories by transmission electron microscopy. Figure 2 shows negative stained exosome and immune-labelled exosome in whole mount status. Figure 3 shows sectioned exosome and immuno-labelled exosomes after thin sectioning. Immuno-gold staining using antibodies of specific proteins is used to positively identify an exosome and classify the types of proteins in the exosome. Th.......

Discussion

This article presents a protocol for observing the detailed exosome's structure and labeling of its specific proteins. Negative staining has been considered as the best method for exosome imaging¹⁷. This conventional technique has shown exosomes' cup-shaped structure. However, this cup shape is a form of artefact that can occur due to the drying process. Cryo-TEM results have shown that exosomes have a perfectly spherical structure in aqueous solution^25,<.......

Materials

List of materials used in this article

Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
Glutaraldehyde	EMS	16200
Sodium cacodylate	EMS	12300
Osmium tetroxide 1 g crystal	EMS	19100	Use only in fume hood
acetone	JUNSEI	1B2031
Spurr medium	TED PELLA	18108
Ultra-microtome	Leica	UCT
Uranyl acetate	EMS	22400	Hazardous chemical
Lead citrate	EMS	17900
Transmission Electron Microscopy	Hitachi	H7600
nickel grid	EMS	G200-Ni
Copper grid	EMS	G200-Cu
glycine	SIGMA	022K5404
Phosphate buffer saline	SIGMA	P4417
Bovine serum albumin	Aurion	25557
1st Antibody			purification in manually
Purified anti-human CD274 (B7-H1, PD-L1) Antibody	BioLegend	329710	Whole mount Immumogold
Purified Mouse IgG2b, κ Isotype Ctrl	BioLegend	401202	Whole mount Immumogold (Control)
2nd Anti-mouse igG conjugated 9-11 nm gold particle	sigma	G7652
Transmission Electron Microscopy	JEOL	JEM2200FS
Glow discharger	JEOL	JFC1100E
Carbon grid	EMS	121119
Paraformaldehyde	EMS	19210
Formvar carbon coated Copper Grid (200 meh)	EMS	FCF200-CU
Formvar carbon coated  Nickel Grid (200 mesh)	EMS	FCF200-NI