Table 2.

Main characteristics of EVs.

	Exosomes	Microvesicles	Apoptotic Bodies
Size	30–100 nm	100–1000 nm	1–5 µm
Density	1.13–1.19 g/mL	1.25–1.30 g/mL	1.16–1.28 g/mL
Origin and release mechanisms	Inward budding of endosomes to create multivesicular bodies, which fuse with the plasma membrane and release containing vesicles.	Direct outward budding (blebbing) of the plasma membrane, accompanied by cytoskeleton rearrangements and phospholipids’ relocation to the outer membrane.	Blebbing of plasma membrane during cell death, cellular debris.
Lipid membrane composition	Similar to donor cells’ plasma membrane (includes bone morphogenetic protein): lysobisphosphatidic acid, cholesterol, ceramide, sphingomyelin, phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidyl-ethanolamine, ganglioside GM3, phosphatidylinositol.	Characterized by high phosphatidylserine externalization. High levels of cholesterol, sphingomyelin, and ceramide.	Similar to parental cells’ plasma membrane (without bone morphogenetic protein): cholesterol, phosphatidylserine.
Markers	Membrane impermeable (PI negative). Alix, TSG101, CD9, CD63, CD81, CD82, CD89, flotillin, annexin, hsp70, hsp90.	Membrane impermeable (PI negative). Integrins, selectins, flotilin-2, other antigens of parental cell, phosphatidylserine.	Membrane permeable (PI positive). Histones, DNA, phosphatidylserine.
Cargo	DNA, mRNA, miRNA, lipids, specific proteins	DNA, mRNA, miRNA, lipids, specific proteins	Cellular organelles, RNA, fragmented DNA, proteins
References	[19,21,110,111,112,113,114,115,116,117]	[21,112,116,118]	[21,110,113,114,116]

ALIX, apoptosis-linked gene 2-interacting protein X; hsp70, 70 kilodalton heat shock protein; hsp90, 90 kilodalton heat shock protein; mRNA, messenger RNA; miRNA, microRNA; PI, Propidium iodide; TSG101, tumor susceptibility gene 101.