Table 1.

Ectosomes and exosomes: similarities and differences

Characteristics	Ectosomes	Exosomes
Formation	By budding of plasma membrane	By invagination into and subsequent exocytosis from multivesicular bodies
Diameter	∼30 nm to 1 micron or larger	∼30 nm to ∼200 nm
Markers	Proposed markers include plasma membrane integrins and selectins	Proposed markers include tetraspanins (CD63, CD81), Alix, TSG 101, but overlap with ectosomes has been widely observed
Timing of release	More rapid	More delayed
Cargo	mRNA, miRNA, proteins; may be more diverse than exosomes simply because of maximum size	mRNA, miRNA, proteins
Vesicle population	Wider range of sizes	Size limited by multivesicular body