A paper has been published by Journal of Extracellular Biology

A study on the prediction of severe congenital diaphragmatic hernia using extracellular vesicle microRNAs in amniotic fluid, a joint research paper with Prof. Yokoi of Nagoya University.

Paper summary
Congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH) is a congenital defect of the diaphragm, leading to respiratory impairment after birth due to lung hypoplasia and pulmonary hypertension. In severe cases, the survival rate is reported to be 10-15%. Although the survival rate has slightly increased in recent years due to fetal treatment called FETO (fetoscopy-assisted tracheal occlusion), there remains a significant problem: the prediction of severe cases is insufficient, as neonatal death can still occur in cases where FETO is not currently indicated. In this study, extracellular vesicles were extracted from amniotic fluid, and the microRNAs within these vesicles were examined for their ability to predict severe cases (requiring ECMO or resulting in neonatal death). It was found that a single microRNA could predict severe cases with a high prediction accuracy of AUC 0.93, and a combination of two microRNAs achieved an AUC of 0.95. Using the CDH rat model, it was also demonstrated that the extracellular vesicle microRNAs that were up-regulated in CDH amniotic fluid were the same as those up-regulated in CDH lungs, indicating that the lung status of CDH is reflected in the extracellular vesicle microRNAs in the amniotic fluid. This is the first report on predicting severe cases of CDH using extracellular vesicle microRNAs in amniotic fluid. The use of EV sheets in this context is novel, as it is typically challenging to extract extracellular vesicles from rat amniotic fluid due to the small amount of fluid in each litter.

Article information
Amniotic fluid-derived small extracellular vesicles for predicting postnatal severe outcome of congenital diaphragmatic hernia
S. Matsuo, A. Yokoi*, K. Yoshida, M. Kitagawa, E. Asano-Inami, M. Miura, T. Yasui, S. Tano, T. Ushida, K. Imai, H. Kajiyama and T. Kotani*
Journal of Extracellular Biology, 3, e160 (2024), 10.1002/jex2.160.

About the Journal of Extracellular Biology
The Journal of Extracellular Biology is an official journal of the International Society for Extracellular Vesicles. It publishes research on both extracellular vesicles and extracellular particles, covering all aspects from biosynthesis and interactions to interactions with the extracellular matrix and other extracellular macromolecules (including, but not limited to, RNA, lipoproteins, and protein complexes). The journal also explores the ultimate effects of these interactions on recipient cells and organs.