Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2015 Aug:35:69-77.
doi: 10.1016/j.ceb.2015.04.013. Epub 2015 May 19.

Extracellular vesicles shuffling intercellular messages: for good or for bad

Alessandra Lo Cicero  1 , Philip D Stahl  2 , Graça Raposo  3
Affiliations
Review

Extracellular vesicles shuffling intercellular messages: for good or for bad

Alessandra Lo Cicero et al. Curr Opin Cell Biol. 2015 Aug.

Abstract

The release of extracellular vesicles (EVs) is a highly conserved process exploited by diverse organisms as a mode of intercellular communication. Vesicles of sizes ranging from 30 to 1000nm, or even larger, are generated by blebbing of the plasma membrane (microvesicles) or formed in multivesicular endosomes (MVEs) to be secreted by exocytosis as exosomes. Exosomes, microvesicles and other EVs contain membrane and cytosolic components that include proteins, lipids and RNAs, a composition that differs related to their site of biogenesis. Several mechanisms are involved in vesicle formation at the plasma membrane or in endosomes, which is reflected in their heterogeneity, size and composition. EVs have significant promise for therapeutics and diagnostics and for understanding physiological and pathological processes all of which have boosted research to find modulators of their composition, secretion and targeting.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources