Prof. Dr. Dr. med. Thomas Thum / IMTTS / MHH

Research report 2015

Cover picture:

The cover image/animation of the 2015 research report shows an animation with the in vitro uptake of 30-100 nM sized exosomes in cardiomyocytes.

Exosomes are a type of vesicle and are responsible for paracrine communication pathways in the heart (Bang et al., JCI, 2014). In particular, the pathway of exosomes from fibroblasts to neighboring cardiomyocytes is of great importance. Exosomes packed with microRNAs (class of non-coding RNAs) can trigger pathological size growth in cardiomyocytes.

In the animation shown here, exosomes were isolated from a fibroblast culture via several centrifugation steps, PKH26-stained and incubated with neonatal rat cardiomyocytes for 2 hours. The cells were then fixed, cardiomyocytes were stained with WGA (wheat germ agglutinin) Alexa Fluor 488 and confocal microscopy was performed. In the animation, cardiomyocytes are stained green (membrane staining), fibroblast exosomes are stained red and the cell nuclei are stained blue (DAPI).

The animation was provided by Prof. Dr. Dr. Thomas Thum, Director of the Institute of Molecular and Translational Therapy Strategies (IMTTS, IFB-Tx).

The imaging of the cell was carried out in close collaboration with Prof. Dr. Dr. Evgeni Ponimaskin from the Institute of Neurophysiology at the MHH.