Exosomes: Isolation, characterization, and biomedical applications

Abstract

Exosomes are nano-sized bioactive vesicles of 30–150 nm in diameter. They are secreted by exocytosis of nearly all type of cells in to the extracellular fluid. Thereby, they can be found in many biological fluids. Exosomes regulate intracellular communication between cells via delivery of their cargo which include lipids, proteins, and nucleic acid. Many desirable features of exosomes made them promising candidates in several therapeutic applications. In this review, we discuss the use of exosomes as diagnostic tools and their possible biomedical applications. Additionally, current techniques used for isolation, purification, and characterization of exosomes from both biological fluids and in vitro cell cultures were discussed.