Table 1.

Comparison of different downstream exosome isolation techniques. The table summarizes the advantages and disadvantages of each technique and their reported exosome recovery rate.

Isolation Technique	Principle	Recovery (%)	Pros	Cons	References
Ultracentrifugation	Sedimentation rate	5–20	High sample capacity and low cost	Time-consuming and low purity	[9,10]
Density gradient ultracentrifugation	Density, size, shape	10–40	High purity and protein concentration	Long run time and low yield	[9,11,12]
Polymer-based precipitation	Sedimentation rate	90+	High yield	Low purity	[13,14,15]
Ultrafiltration	Size	30	Maintains integrity; simple and low-cost	Moderate purity; low yield due to exosome trapping in filter pores	[9,16,17]
Size-exclusion chromatography	Size	40–80	High purity, integrity, and functionality; reduction of exosome aggregation	Low extraction volume	[9,18]
Immunoaffinity chromatography	Surface marker	90+	Maintain integrity	Low capacity and low yield	[9,19,20]
Microfluidics	Surface marker	40–90	Low cost and low input sample required	Low sample capacity; cargo may be modified	[9,21,22]
Magnetic bead isolation	Surface marker	80+	Maintain integrity	Possible impurities	[23,24]