Table 3.

Quantitative exosome analysis methods

	Method	Advantages	Disadvantages	Throughput	Refs.
Total exosome count	Nanoparticle tracking analysis	Minimal sample preparation Rapid Samples are reusable	High sample purity required Not suitable for polydispersed particles	High	[148, 174, 177, 203]
	Electron microscopy (Cryo‐EM)	Highly specific with immunogold labeling	Sample preparation with immunogold labeling	No	[205]
	Flow cytometry	Accurate count	Not suitable for particles ≤200 nm	High	[203d]
	Fluorescence correlation spectroscopy	Accurate count	Small sample volume (10−15 L) High sample concentration and purify required	High	[177, 203]
	Dynamic light scattering	Rapid (minutes) Sample are reusable	Not suitable for polydispersed particles Bias for larger particles Minimum sample concentration required	High	[133, 148, 177, 203, 279]
	Resistive pulse sensing		High sample purity required	High	[133]
Protein	Mass spectroscopy	High specificity Multiplexed protein identification	High sample purity required	High	[235, 280]
	ELISA	High sensitivity and specificity Commercially available	Limited by antibody availability	High	[206, 281]
Lipid	Sulfophosphovanilin assay	Lower cost	Minimum >50 µg mL−1 lipid Low sensitivity	No	[216]
	Fluorescence microscopy with lipophilic dye	Visible	Calibration with standards Prone to photobleaching	High	[217]
	Fourier‐transform infrared spectroscopy	High accuracy and reproducibility Rapid Low cost Small sample amount	Not sensitive for cholesterol and other sterols	High	[213, 214, 282]
DNA/RNA	PCR	High sensitivity and accuracy	Limited multiplex capability	High	[225]
	Microarray	Direct detection	Bias for longer sequences	High	[222, 225]
	Next generation sequencing	Multiplexed analysis Small sample input Reading short fragments	Time consuming Restrained by an intrinsic error rate	High	[225, 229]