Table 1.

EV types, surface markers, and cargos.

Features	Apoptotic Bodies	MVs	Exosomes
Shape	Heterogeneous	Heterogeneous	Spherical
Size (nm)	50–5000	100–1000	30–150
Formation mechanism	Nuclear chromatin condensation, followed by membrane blebbing	Plasma membrane direct outward budding and fission	Endosomal network fusion with the plasma membrane
Release or response	Apoptosis	Cell injury, proinflammatory stimulants, hypoxia, oxidative stress or shear stress	Cellular stress or activation signals
Surface markers	Apoptotic cell markers	Selectins, integrin, CD40, CD31+, CD235a+, CD42b−, CD45, CD61+, CD62E+, and CD144+,	Tetraspanins (CD9, CD63 CD81 and CD82)
Cargos and other markers	Intact chromatin, glycosylated proteins, Caspase 3, histones, HSP60, and GRP78	Cytoskeletal proteins, heat shock proteins, integrins, and proteins containing post-translational modifications, such as glycosylation and phosphorylation	ALIX, TSG-101, PODXL, HSP70, and HSP90β