Table 1.

General features of the extracellular vesicle (EVs)

	Exosomes	Microvesicles	Apoptotic bodies
Size	40–100 nm	100–1000 nm	50–5000 nm
Shape	Regular cup-shaped	Heterogeneous spherical	Irregular
Origin	MVB from living cells	Plasma membrane living cells	Cell death
Biogenesis	ESCRT-I machinery ESCRT-II machinery	Calcium-dependent ESCRT-III machinery	Apoptosis-dependent
Secretion	MVB exocytosis across the plasma membrane	Plasma membrane budding	Cell fragmentation
Content	Proteins, lipids, mRNA, and miRNA	Proteins, lipids, mRNA, and miRNA	Proteins, cell organelles, nuclear fractions, and DNA fragments
Marker	ALIX, CD9, CD63, CD81, TSG 101, HSP70, and HSP90	Integrin, selectin, follitin-2, CD62, CD40 ligand, and ARF6	Annexin V, histones, and DNA fragments