Development of a High-throughput Morphological Assay for Evaluating Mesenchymal Stromal Cell-derived Extracellular Vesicle Modulation of Brain Pericyte Secretory Phenotype

Mesenchymal stromal cell-derived extracellular vesicles (MSC-EVs) are a promising therapeutic tool for treating many neurodegenerative diseases. Neuroinflammation plays a major role in many of these conditions through an orchestration of interdependent processes that lead to the breakdown of the blood-brain barrier (BBB), infiltration of immune cells and neuronal death. MSC-EVs have shown preliminary evidence of modulating neuroinflammation, but their mechanisms of action are still unknown. Therefore, we explored the potential of MSC-EVs in modulating brain pericytes, a cell type that plays a critical role in BBB maintenance but has not been investigated as a therapeutic target for MSC-EVs. Brain pericytes are multifaceted cells that can modulate neuroinflammation through their involvement in BBB homeostasis, as well as the innate and adaptive immune response. Pericyte morphology has been shown to change in response to inflammatory stimuli in vivo, hence, we used this behavior to develop a quantitative morphological profiling approach to assess the immunomodulatory function of MSC-EVs in a high-throughput, low-cost manner. Using this assay, we were able to demonstrate that MSC-EVs manufactured under various conditions (2D, 3D, and in response to cytokine priming) could induce distinct pericyte morphological responses indicative of changes in secretion of chemokines and cytokines relevant to neuroinflammation.