Skip to main content
. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2011 Apr 27.
Published in final edited form as: ACS Nano. 2010 Apr 27;4(4):1921–1926. doi: 10.1021/nn901824n

Figure 1. Ultrastructure of individual saliva exosomes observed under Tapping mode, AM-AFM and FESEM.

Figure 1

a, Tapping mode topographic AFM image showing round morphology of isolated exosomes. b, AM-AFM phase image of aggregated exosomes. Interconnections (arrows) lacking characteristic phase shift, probably indicate some extra-vesicular protein content. c, At higher forces under AM-AFM(~2nN) representative single exosome phase images reveal trilobed sub-structure within the centre of the vesicles. The contrast in images may be presumably attributed to variable constitutive elements (lipid, protein, RNA ratio) making up these structures. d, Corresponding height images show a central depression of the vesicles. e, FESEM exosome image showing multiple exosomes and f, single isolated vesicles as round bulging structures without a central depression and well resolved intervesicular connections.