Abstract
Exosomes have been shown to act as mediators for cell to cell communication and as a potential source of biomarkers for many diseases, including prostate cancer. Exosomes are nanosized vesicles secreted by cells and consist of proteins normally found in multivesicular bodies, RNA, DNA and lipids. As a potential source of biomarkers, exosomes have attracted considerable attention, as their protein content resembles that of their cells of origin, even though it is noted that the proteins, miRNAs and lipids found in the exosomes are not a reflective stoichiometric sampling of the contents from the parent cells. While the biogenesis of exosomes in dendritic cells and platelets has been extensively characterized, much less is known about the biogenesis of exosomes in cancer cells. An understanding of the processes involved in prostate cancer will help to further elucidate the role of exosomes and other extracellular vesicles in prostate cancer progression and metastasis. There are few methodologies available for general isolation of exosomes, however validation of those methodologies is necessary to study the role of exosomal-derived biomarkers in various diseases. In this review, we discuss “exosomes” as a member of the family of extracellular vesicles and their potential to provide candidate biomarkers for prostate cancer.
Highlights
Cells secrete many different kinds of vesicles, termed extracellular vesicles (EV)
Covers a broad range of secreted vesicles, including exosomes, microvesicles, shed particles, apoptotic vesicles and apoptotic bodies. This has led to some controversy as to the exact definition of exosomes, and in this review we refer to exosomes based on their biogenesis, as nanosized vesicles which bud intracellularly at multivesicular endosomes, called multivesicular bodies (MVB), while the other
Given that the cell type influences the characteristic of secreted exosomes, it is important to understand the exosome biogenesis in those cells before making a decision on what methodology would be optimal for isolating exosomes
Summary
Cells secrete many different kinds of vesicles, termed extracellular vesicles (EV). The term EV covers a broad range of secreted vesicles, including exosomes, microvesicles, shed particles, apoptotic vesicles and apoptotic bodies. ISEV meeting that there is a lack of evidence that microvesicles that originate from the plasma membrane should be over 100 nm in diameter [20] Other such as exosome-like vesicles, viral-like particles, microparticles, apoptotic bodies, and apoptotic vesicles have been reported. A recent report by Tauro et al shows that exosomes purified using density gradients are more homogenous, with diameters around 100 nm, in comparison with exosomes purified by stepwise ultracentrifugation [27] This is in agreement with discussions during the 2012 ISEV meeting that purification methods using density gradient centrifugation can enrich for a specific population of vesicles [20]. Given that the cell type influences the characteristic of secreted exosomes, it is important to understand the exosome biogenesis in those cells before making a decision on what methodology would be optimal for isolating exosomes
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