ArticleeLife2023
Global analysis of contact-dependent human-to-mouse intercellular mRNA and lncRNA transfer in cell culture.
Article in eLife, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed, 18 citations in OpenAlex.
- Tunneling nanotubes: a new dimension of intercellular communication and recent progress.Cell communication and signaling : CCS · 2026Review
- From energy provision to protein synthesis: Tunnelling nanotubes as mediators of intercellular metabolic cooperation in cancer.FEBS open bio · 2026Review
- Mobile Powerhouses: Mitochondria Transfer via Tunnelling Nanotubes in Brain Health and Neurodegenerative Diseases.The European journal of neuroscience · 2026Review
- Conservation of mRNA operon formation in control of the heat shock response in mammalian cells.Science advances · 2025Article
- Intercellular mRNA transfer alters the human pluripotent stem cell state.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Drug Delivery System Targeting Cancer-Associated Fibroblast for Improving Immunotherapy.International journal of nanomedicine · 2025Review
- Invisible Bridges: Unveiling the Role and Prospects of Tunneling Nanotubes in Cancer Therapy.Molecular pharmaceutics · 2024Review
- Inter-cellular mRNA Transfer Alters Human Pluripotent Stem Cell State.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2024Article
- Transplanted human photoreceptors transfer cytoplasmic material but not to the recipient mouse retina.Stem cell research & therapy · 2024Article
- Caspases help to spread the message via extracellular vesicles.The FEBS journal · 2023Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors at 3 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Full-length mRNAs transfer between adjacent mammalian cells via direct cell-to-cell connections called tunneling nanotubes (TNTs). However, the extent of mRNA transfer at the transcriptome-wide level (the 'transferome') is unknown. Here, we analyzed the transferome in an in vitro human-mouse cell co-culture model using RNA-sequencing. We found that mRNA transfer is non-selective, prevalent across the human transcriptome, and that the amount of transfer to mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs) strongly correlates with the endogenous level of gene expression in donor human breast cancer cells. Typically,<1% of endogenous mRNAs undergo transfer. Non-selective, expression-dependent RNA transfer was further validated using synthetic reporters. RNA transfer appears contact-dependent via TNTs, as exemplified for several mRNAs. Notably, significant differential changes in the native MEF transcriptome were observed in response to co-culture, including the upregulation of multiple cancer and cancer-associated fibroblast-related genes and pathways. Together, these results lead us to suggest that TNT-mediated RNA transfer could be a phenomenon of physiological importance under both normal and pathogenic conditions.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.