<i>In Vivo</i> Imaging of Exosomes Labeled with NIR-II Polymer Dots in Liver-Injured Mice
Ning Ma, Yujing Liu, Dandan Chen, Changfeng Wu, Zihui Meng
Abstract
Mesenchymal stem cell-derived exosomes (MSC-Exos) are emerging as a promising platform for treating various intractable diseases and organ injuries. Monitoring their migration, homing, and therapeutic capability in vivo is essential to develop exosome-based theranostics. Here, we designed fluorescent semiconductor polymer dots (Pdots) in the second near-infrared window (NIR-II) for bright labeling and tracking of MSC-Exos. Glucose-coated Pdots (Pdots-Glu) were able to label MSC-Exos without changing their biological properties. The NIR-II fluorescent Pdots allow for high labeling brightness and long-term in vivo tracking of MSC-Exos. We investigated the biodistributions and therapeutic functions of these labeled MSC-Exos in liver-resected mice. In vivo and ex vivo imaging demonstrated that the Pdot-labeled MSC-Exos injected via the tail vein mainly accumulated in the residual liver tissue. In terms of the therapeutic effect, MSC-Exos may accelerate postoperative liver function recovery by inhibiting inflammatory responses, promoting cell proliferation, and resisting apoptosis. Our results indicated that MSC-Exos therapeutic systems hold promising applications in liver regenerative medicine.