Novel roles of small extracellular vesicles in regulating the quiescence and proliferation of neural stem cells

We analyzed protein cargos of NSC sEVs from proliferating, resting and reactivating status by proteomics approaches. Our results revealed specific functional clusters of pathways in gene ontology annotations of differentially expressed proteins in three sources of exosomes. Furthermore, we showed the involvement of sEVs in maintaining quiescence, along with entering and exiting the G0 phase by applying an exosome inhibitor. Our findings highlighted the expression level changes of NSCs of sEV protein cargo at different proliferative conditions and further confirmed the involvement of sEVs in entering, maintaining and exiting quiescence of NSCs.