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. 2021 Mar 18;9(3):312. doi: 10.3390/biomedicines9030312

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© 2021 by the authors.

Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

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Extracellular vesicle (EV) biogenesis and role in tumor. (A). Tumor cells can release EVs involved in cell-to-cell communication; these are classified as exosomes, microvesicles and apoptotic bodies based on their origin and size. (B) Exosomes released by tumor cells reach the bloodstream and play an important role in metastasis development. (C) Exosomes are small lipid bilayer-enclosed vesicles, characterized by the presence of transmembrane tetraspanin proteins and a content of RNA, DNA, miRNA as well as proteins.