Fig. 4
From: ECM stiffness affects cargo sorting into MSC-EVs to regulate their secretion and uptake behaviors
Substrate stiffness regulates the phagocytosis of MSC-EV in macrophages. A, Immunofluorescence assessment of macrophage phagocytic efficiency for stiff-EVs and soft-EVs. Left: fluorescence images (green for DiO-labeled EVs, blue for DAPI-labeled nucleus), Right: intracellular fluorescence intensity statistics (****p < 0.0001, n > 30). B, Heat map of proteins regulated by substrate stiffness and associated with vesicular transport (COG classification). C, Differential abundance (DA) scores for metabolites regulated by substrate stiffness (soft-EVs vs stiff-EVs Downgrade top5 with the minimum p, n = 3). D, Radar mapping of the top 10 metabolites with the greatest differences between soft-EVs and stiff-EVs (soft-EVs vs. stiff-EVs, Top 10 with the largest multiplicative differences, n = 3). E, The phagocytic behaviors in macrophages could vary depending on the types of EVs present