Fahime S norouzi - Department of Molecular Genetics, Faculty of Biological Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran
mehrdad Behmanesh - Department of Molecular Genetics, Faculty of Biological Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran
Sadegh Babashah - Department of Molecular Genetics, Faculty of Biological Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran

Purpose: Ovarian cancer is one of the most common and fatal cancers among women. Cells in the tumor microenvironment, especially cancer cells, interact with the normal cells around their surroundings, especially endothelial cells. Exosomes, the term referred to nano-sized intraluminal vesicles of multivesicular bodies, are secreted by most types of cells and mediate intercellular communication.Materials and methods: Exosome were prepared from cell culture media of ovarian epithelial carcinoma cells (SKOV3) by ExoSpin kit. Isolated exosomes were characterized by scanning electron microscopy in terms of size and morphology. The size of the purified exosomes was measured by dynamic light scattering (DLS) using a Zetasizer Nano ZS. Human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) were treated with exosomes (100 ʽg/ml) or vehicle control (PBS). The cell count of exosome-treated HUVECs was accessed using neubauer lam.Results and Discussion: Scanning electron micrograph of purified exosomes depicting spherical and membrane-encapsulated particles with diameters ranging from 50 to 200 nm. Also, exosome size measurements by DLS indicated a single bell-shaped size distribution with a peak at ~90 nm. We demonstrated that ovarian tumor-derived exosomes caused an increase in the proliferation rate of HUVECs. These findings may clarify, in part, the role of tumor-derived exosomes in ovarian cancer biology and tumor angiogenesis. Since exosomes are considered as enriched sources of microRNAs, we hypothesized that exosome mediated transfer of these non-coding RNAs from ovarian tumor cells might account for enhanced proliferation of exosome-treated HUVECs.

Exosomes, Ovarian epithelial carcinoma cells, Human umbilical vein endothelial cells, Cell proliferation