Accumulating evidence shows that extracellular vesicles (EVs) secreted by immune cells play an important role in intercellular communication. In the current report, we show that EVs released from wild-type bone marrow-derived dendritic cells (BMDCs) transfer TLRs to TLR4-knockout (TLR4KO) BMDCs and increase cellular responsiveness to LPS in recipient cells. The transferred EVs have exosomal characteristics and induce the activation of NF-κB signaling pathways in recipient cells. We further show that BMDC-derived EVs can promote LPS-induced inflammation in TLR4KO mice in vivo. These results indicate that functional TLR4 can be transferred from wild-type to TLR4KO BMDCs through exosome-like EVs.
Copyright © 2019 The Authors.