Table 1.

Characteristics of the main types of extracellular vesicles (EVs).

	Type	Size (nm)	Biogenesis	Reference
Eukaryotic EVs	Exosomes	30–150	Released by multivesicular bodies fusing with plasma membrane	[30, 31, 71]
	Microvesicles	100–1000	Outward budding of the plasma membrane	[30, 31, 71]
	Apoptotic bodies	>1000	Programmed cell death	[30, 31, 71]
Bacterial EVs	Outer membrane vesicles	20–300	Blebbing of the outer membrane of Gram‐negative bacteria	[39, 71, 110]
	Outer‐inner membrane vesicle	60–160	Explosive cell lysis and cell budding of Gram‐negative bacteria	[39, 43, 44]
	Cytoplasmic membrane vesicles	20–400	Extrusion of the cell membrane and release through cell wall pores or holes of Gram‐positive bacteria	[39, 71, 110]