Environmental pH stress influences cellular secretion and uptake of extracellular vesicles.

Exosomes (extracellular vesicles/EVs) participate in cell-cell communication and contain bioactive molecules, such as microRNAs. However, the detailed characteristics of secreted EVs produced by cells grown under low pH conditions are still unknown. Here, we report that low pH in the cell culture medium significantly affected the secretion of EVs with increased protein content and zeta potential.

Gefitinib Enhances Mitochondrial Biological Functions in NSCLCs with Mutations at a High Cell Density.

Background/aim: Gefitinib is a tyrosine kinase inhibitor of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and has been approved for the treatment of non-small cell lung cancers (NSCLCs) with EGFR mutations. Here we demonstrated that gefitinib induced a significantly enhanced biological activity of succinate-tetrazolium reductase (STR) in mitochondria and mitochondrial membrane potential in HCC827 cells (EGFR mutation NSCLCs, sensitive to gefitinib) at a high cell density.

Materials And Methods: We assessed the biological activity (STR, mitochondrial membrane potential, expression level of Bcl-2 family proteins) of gefitinib on NSCLCs at different cell densities.