The study on the involvement of exosomes in autophagy and apoptosis of vascular endothelial cells induced by HMME-PDT

This study investigated the mechanism of exosomes involved in HMME-PDT induced autophagy and apoptosis. To investigate the mechanism of exosomes affecting autophagy and apoptosis of vascular endothelial cells, HUVEC group, HMME-PDT group, HMME-PDT+3-MA group and HMME-PDT+zVAD-fmk group were set up in this study. The secretion levels of hemoporfin from different groups of exosomes were analyzed. Next, human umbilical vein endothelial cells were treated with exosomes from different groups, and treated with 630nm laser irradiation to analyze and compare the differences in cell growth activity, apoptosis level, and autophagy level. HMME-PDT can induce HUVECs to release exosomes rich in hemoporfin. After inhibition of autophagy, hemoporfin concentration in exosomes is significantly decreased, while after inhibition of apoptosis, hemoporfin concentration in exosomes is significantly increased. The function verification experiments of exosomes further proved that exosomes can affect cell growth, apoptosis and autophagy. Exosomes affect autophagy and apoptosis of HUVECs by mediating the emission of hemoporfin.