Table 1.

Characterization of extracellular vesicles

Extracellular vesicles	Origin	Size	Content	Markers
Exosomes	Multivesicular bodies	50–150 nm	Proteins, and lipids, DNA, mRNA and miRNA	CD63, CD81, CD9, heat-shock proteins, Alix, Tsg101, integrin, annexins and MHC classes I and II
Microvesicles	Plasma membrane	150–1000 nm	Proteins, and lipids, DNA, mRNA, miRNA and cell organelles.	Integrins, flotillins and tetraspanins
Apoptotic bodies	Membrane of dying cells	>1 μm	DNA, noncoding RNAs and cell organelles	Surface markers for macrophages

Alix ALG-2-interacting protein X, MHC major histocompatibility complex, miRNA microRNA, Tsg101 tumor susceptibility gene 101