Fig. 5.

qRT-PCR analysis of exosome microRNA expression in normal plasma and plasma from patients with breast cancer. Plasma samples were collected under an Institutional Review Board approved protocol from healthy women with no history of cancer (n = 16, mean age 42 years, age range 27–66) and women with breast cancer (n = 16, mean age 59.6 years, range 42–80; see Table 3). Exosomes were isolated from plasma samples using the Exoquick reagent and total RNA was extracted. a Human plasma exosomes were visualized by electron microscopy (×30,000). b Candidate microRNA expression was measured in normal plasma (n = 16) and plasma from patients with breast cancer (n = 16) by qRT-PCR. Student’s t test, *p < 0.05