Fig. 1

Uptake of TEV and EEV fraction in HepG2 cells and effects on cell growth. A BODIPY™ TR Ceramide labelled (red) TEVs and EEVs showing uptake in HepG2 cells at 3 h (left) and 24 h (right). Shown here are microphotographs (384 × 384 μm) taken stitching 4 images of HepG2 cells cultured on a 48-well plate; representative for 5 experiments. B BODIPY™ TR Ceramide labelled (red) or unlabelled uptake on HepG2 cells at 24 h. Upper-left: direct BODIPY™ labelling in culture medium of HepG2; upper-right: uptake of BODIPY™ labelled TEVs; bottom-left: uptake of BODIPY™ labelled EEVs; bottom-right: BODIPY™ labelled PBS without vesicles after elution on Exosome Spin Column on HepG2 cells. Shown here are microphotographs (1560 × 1560 μm) taken stitching 4 images of HepG2 cells cultured on a 48-well plate; representative for 3 experiments. C Effects of TEV and EEV fractions on HepG2 cell growth. Microphotographs (5800 × 5800 μm) of control cells (PBS, left panels), TEV-treated cells (middle panels) and EEV-treated cells (right panels) at 24, 48 and 72 h. Zoomed on the right, there is a portion of the whole image that shows clearly the cell islets. Red line is 100 μm. D Graph representing uncovered area ratio (uncovered area at the mentioned time/uncovered area at day 0) by treated or untreated HepG2 cells over time. Consequently, the lower the ratio, the higher the growth of cells. Areas were calculated after binarization of the images in the C panel. Data are mean ± SD with n = 3 per group. *, p < 0.05 vs control