Table 1. Classification of cell-associated vesicles.

Classification	Origin	Mechanism of release	Size	Potential markers	Source*
Extracellular vesicles	Mixed population of exosomes, microvesicles, apoptotic bodies, large oncosomes	Fusion of MVBs and direct budding from the plasma membrane	Variable 40 nm–10 µm	Varied: tetraspanins, major histocompatibility complex (MHC) molecules, cytosolic proteins	[13]
Intraluminal vesicles	Multiple cell types (endosome-associated)	Intraluminal vesicles exist within MVBs and upon release these vesicles are termed exosomes	40–100 nm	MHC II, tetraspanins, ubiquitinated proteins	[1] [16]
Ectosomes	Multiple cell types (commonly neutrophils or monocytes)	Plasma membrane budding	100–350 nm	TyA, C1q	[21]
Exosomes	Multiple cell types (endosome-associated)	Fusion of MVBs with plasma membrane	40–100 nm	CD9, CD63, CD81, TSG101, Alix, Hsp70	[1] [15]
Exomeres	Multiple cell types	Not yet described	<50 nm	Non-membranous, Hsp90-β	[5]
Prostasomes	Prostate epithelium	Budding from the plasma membrane of prostate epithelial cells	40–130 nm	PAP, PSA, TMPRSS2, PSCA	[20]
Microvesicles	Multiple cell types	Plasma membrane budding	100–1000 nm	Phosphatidylserine, integrins, selectin, CD40	[17] [18]
Oncosomes/ large oncosomes	Tumour cells	Cancer cell membrane budding	1–10 µm	EGFRvIII, ARF6, Cav-1, CK18, oncogenic material	[107] [14] [23] [14]
Apoptotic bodies	Cells undergoing apoptosis	Blebbing and fragmentation of the plasma membrane of apoptotic cells	500–4000 nm	Phosphatidylserine, annexin V, thrombospondin, C3b	[19]
Enveloped virus particles	Virally infected cells	Plasma membrane budding	~100 nm	Viral-encoded proteins	[22]

*The cited references are not an exhaustive list. We apologize to authors whose work was unintentionally omitted.