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. 2022 Oct 2;11(19):3108. doi: 10.3390/cells11193108

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© 2022 by the authors.

Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

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Illustration of the biogenesis of EVs and their cargo. Exosomes, generated by endocytosis (1) of the endosomal membrane, form early (2) and late (3) endosomes and multivesicular bodies (MVBs) (4). After the fusion of the MVBs with the plasma membrane, exosomes are released into the extracellular space (5). MVBs fuse with autophagosomes and are degraded in lysosomes (6). Microvesicles, by contrast, are generated by simple budding of the plasma membrane (7). Exosomes carry proteins, miRNA, mRNA, DNA, and lipids. Tetraspanins (CD9, CD63, and CD81) on the surface serve as markers for EV identification.