Table 1.
Key features of membrane vesicle populations
| Exosomes | Microvesicles | Apoptotic bodies | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Size range | Approximately 50–100 nm | 100–1,000 nm (~100–400 nm in blood plasma) [2, 22, 38] | 1–5 μm [61] |
| Mechanism of generation | By exocytosis of MVBs | By budding/blebbing of the plasma membrane | By release from blebs of cells undergoing apoptosis |
| Isolation | Differential centrifugation and sucrose gradient ultracentrifugation [25], 100,000–200,000g, vesicle density is 1.13–1.19 g/mL | Differential centrifugation [39] 18,000–20,000g | Established protocols are essentially lacking; most studies use co-culture with apoptotic cells instead of isolating apoptotic bodies |
| Detection | TEM, western blotting, mass spectrometry, flow cytometry (bead coupled) | Flow cytometry, capture based assays [38, 52] | Flow cytometry |
| Best characterized cellular sources | Immune cells and tumors | Platelets, red blood cells and endothelial cells | Cell lines |
| Markers | Annexin V binding, CD63, CD81, CD9, LAMP1 and TSG101 [23, 24] | Annexin V binding, tissue factor and cell-specific markers | Annexin V binding, DNA content |
| Recent review articles | [2, 22, 23, 26–35] | [2, 24, 35, 53–57] |