| Biogenesis |
Endosomal origin and exocytosis |
Outward budding of the plasma membrane |
Outward blebbing and fragmentation of the plasma membrane |
| Release time |
Ten minutes or more |
Few seconds |
– |
| Pathways |
ESCRT-dependent Tetraspanin-dependent Ceramide-dependent Stimuli-dependent |
Ca2+-dependent Stimuli- and cell-dependent |
Apoptosis-related |
| Size |
30–150 nm |
100–1000 nm |
1000–5000 nm |
| Appearance-electron microscopy |
Spheroid/cup shape |
Irregular and electron-dense |
Heterogeneous |
| Density |
1.13–1.19 g/ml |
1.04–1.07 g/ml |
1.16–1.28 g/ml |
| Isolation method |
ultracentrifugation, ultrafiltration, precipitation, size exclusion chromatography, immunoaffinity capture-based, microfluidics-based, polymer-based, etc. |
Ultracentrifugation |
No standardized protocol |
| Content |
Proteins, nucleic acids, lipids, and metabolites |
Proteins, nucleic acids, lipids, and metabolites |
DNA fragments and histone, chromatin remnants, cell organelles, cytosol portions, degraded proteins |
| Typical constituent proteins |
Tetraspanins (CD9, CD63, CD81), ESCRT proteins (Alix, TSG101), Integrins (−α, −β), heat shock proteins (HSP90, HSP70) |
Anexin V, Flotillin-2, Selectins, Integrins, CD40 ligand, metalloproteinase |
Anexin V, DNA, histones |
| Function |
Cell-cell communication |
Cell-cell communication |
Product of programmed cell death. Removal of unwanted cells |
