AFM visualization of cortical filaments/network under cell-bound membrane vesicles

作者：Zhang, Xiaojun; Tang, Qisheng; Wu, Li; Huang, Jie; Chen, Yong^*

来源：Biochimica et Biophysica Acta-Biomembranes, 2015, 1848(10): 2225-2232.

DOI：10.1016/j.bbamem.2015.06.025

• Membrane vesicles
• Vesicle-derived pits
• Endothelial cells
• Cortical filaments/network
• Atomic force microscopy (AFM)
• TNF-alpha

While circulating/plasma membrane vesicles have been extensively characterized, due to the lack of effective methods cell-bound membrane vesicles are poorly understood including their shape and correlation with the intracellular cytoskeleton. In this study, we focused on cell-bound membrane vesicles and individual vesicle-derived pits on endothelial cells by using confocal microscopy and atomic force microscopy (AFM). For the first time, we found that cell-bound membrane vesicles are hemisphere-shaped and that the actin cortical filaments/network lies at the cytosolic opening of a vesicle instead of being closely attached to the inner side of the vesicle membrane. This structure of cell-bound membrane vesicles may be beneficial to their movement in, or release from, the plasma membrane of cells due to less membrane-cytoskeleton coupling to be broken therefore probably minimizing energy consumption and time usage. Further study indicates that TNF-alpha activation induced a significant increase in average number/size of cell-bound vesicles and the local disruption of the actin network at the cytosolic opening of cell-bound vesicles.

• 出版日期2015-10
• 单位江西中医药大学; 南昌大学