Parkinson's disease (PD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease. Alpha-synuclein aggregation, which can activate microglia to enhance its dopaminergic neurotoxicity, plays a central role in the progression of PD. However the mechanism is still unclear. To investigate how alpha-synuclein affects the neuron, exosomes were derived from alpha-synuclein treated mouse microglia cell line BV-2 cells by differential centrifugation and ultracentrifugation. We found that alpha-synuclein can induce an increase of exosomal secretion by microglia. These activated exosomes expressed a high level of MHC class II molecules and membrane TNF-α. In addition, the activated exosomes cause increased apoptosis. Exosomes secreted from activated microglias might be important mediator of alpha-synuclein-induced neurodegeneration in PD.
Keywords: APCs; Alpha-synuclein; CM; Exosome; FWB; LBs; Lewy bodies; Microglia; PD; Parkinson's disease; TACE; TNF-α converting enzyme; antigen-presenting cells; culture medium; flow cytometry wash buffer.
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