Table 1.
The main characteristics of extracellular vesicles
| Biological characteristics | Exosomes | Microvesicles | Apoptotic bodies |
|---|---|---|---|
| Generation | MVEs fuse with cell membranes to release ILVs as exosomes into the extracellular space | budding from plasma membrane directly | budding from apoptotic membrane directly |
| Shape | Cup-shaped | Heterogeneous | Heterogeneous |
| Size(nm) | 50–150 | 100–1000 | 1000–5000 |
| Markers | Tetraspanins (CD9/63/81), Alix, TSG101, flollin, clathrin, MHC | Annexin V, selecns, integrins, flollin-2, CD40, metalloproteinases | Annexin V, Histones |
| Lipids | PtdSer, sphingomyelin cholesterol, ceramide, lysobisphoshadic acid etc. | PtdSer, cholesterol, sphingomyelin etc. | PtdSer etc. |
| Nucleic acids | mRNA, miRNA, lncRNAs | mRNA, miRNA, lncRNAs | mRNA, miRNA, lncRNAs, fragments of DNA |
Abbreviation: MVEs multi-vesicular endosomes, ILVs intraluminal vesicles, PtdSer phosphatidylserine