Plasma-derived exosomes contributes to Endothelial-to-mesenchymal transition in moyamoya disease

Abstract

Abstract Moyamoya disease was a cerebrovascular disease with a high disability rate, and its pathogenesis was still unknown. Endothelium-mesenchymal transition (EndMT) was the pathological basis of many vascular diseases, however, whether EndMT played a key role in moyamoya disease has not been reported. Multiplex fluorescent immunohistochemistry staining confirmed that CD31, VE-cadherin and E-cadherin were down-regulated, α-SMA and Vimentin were significantly up-regulated in moyamoya vascular endothelial cells. Therefore, we proposed for the first time that EndMT may exist in the vessels of moyamoya disease. Plasma-derived exosomes (PDEs) can transmit information between cells and tissues and are of great value in many disease studies. PDEs significantly promoted cell proliferation and migration, and make cells slender. PDEs induced EndMT phenotype changes in cerebral vascular endothelial cells including decreased endothelial cell markers expression and increased mesenchymal cell markers expression. We demonstrate that EndMT phenotypic alterations are mediated in part by microRNA. Thus, we concluded that PDEs induce the EndMT phenotype to promote the development of moyamoya disease. This study aimed to provide a new theoretical basis for elucidating the pathogenesis of moyamoya disease.