Lipopolysaccharide Administration Alters Extracellular Vesicles in Cell Lines and Mice

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) play a fundamental role in cell and infection biology and have the potential to act as biomarkers for novel diagnostic tools. In this study, we explored the in vitro impact of bacterial lipopolysaccharide administration on cell lines that represents a target for bacterial infection in the host. Administration of lipopolysaccharide at varying concentrations to A549 and BV-2 cell lines caused only modest changes in cell death, but EV numbers were significantly changed. After treatment with the highest concentration of lipopolysaccharide, EVs derived from A549 cells packaged significantly less interleukin-6 and lysosomal-associated membrane protein 1. EVs derived from BV-2 cells packaged significantly less tumor necrosis factor after administration of lipopolysaccharide concentrations of 0.1 µg/mL and 1 µg/mL. We also examined the impact of lipopolysaccharide administration on exosome biogenesis and cargo composition in BALB/c mice. Serum-isolated EVs from lipopolysaccharide-treated mice showed significantly increased lysosomal-associated membrane protein 1 and toll-like receptor 4 levels compared with EVs from control mice. In summary, this study demonstrated that EV numbers and cargo were altered using these in vitro and in vivo models of bacterial infection.