Insulin-Like Growth Factor Binding Protein 6 Is Secreted in Extracellular Vesicles upon Hyperthermia and Oxidative Stress in Dendritic Cells But Not in Monocytes

Recently, insulin-like growth factor binding protein 6 (IGFBP-6) has been shown to play a putative role in the immune system, as monocyte-derived dendritic cells (Mo-DCs) are stimulated by hyperthermia to express IGFBP-6 at both the mRNA and protein levels. However, the presence of IGFBP-6 in extracellular vesicles (EVs) and whether other pro-inflammatory stimuli can induce IGFBP-6 expression in Mo-DCs are not known yet. In this brief report, we show that hyperthermia (39 °C) induces IGFBP-6 secretion associated with microvesicles and exosomes as early as 3 h. Moreover, free IGFBP-6 is found in conditioned media (CM) of hyperthermia- and H2O2-treated Mo-DCs, but not in CM obtained from monocytes similarly treated. These results show that diverse inflammatory stimuli can induce IGFBP-6 association with EVs and secretion in conditioned medium, indicating a role for IGFBP-6 in communication between immune cells.