Table 1.

Characteristics of different types of extracellular vesicles.

	Exosomes	Microvesicles	Apoptotic Bodies
Size	30–120 nm	100–1000 nm	500–4000 nm
Biogenesis	Endolysosomal pathway; fusion of multivesicular bodies with the plasma membrane.	Shedding of plasma membrane with cellular content.	Plasma membrane budding of apoptotic cells.
Putative Markers enriched in the EVs	CD63, CD81, CD9, Hsp60, Hsp70, Hsp90, Alix, ESCRT components, Flotillin.	Integrins, selectins, CD40, CD9, CD63, CD81, CD82 and origin cell-specific markers.	Elevated phosphatidylserine.
Molecular Cargo	Proteins, RNA, miRNA and lipids.	Proteins, RNA, miRNA and lipids.	Organelles, proteins, DNA, RNA, lipids.