Figure 1.
Cellular microparticles: a mobile storage pool of bioactive effectors.
Membrane microparticles are shed from the plasma membrane of stimulated cells, harbouring cytoplasmic proteins as well as bioactive lipids implicated in a variety of fundamental processes. MHC: major histocompatibility complex; GPI: glycosylphosphatidylinositol. (Adapted with permission from Hugel et al., 2005113.)