exosomes, cell & molecular biology

A small study finds that the tiny extracellular vesicles from patients with hepatocellular carcinoma have RNA content distinct from patients with cirrhosis only.

A growing branch of research on how plants use exosomes to interact with their environment is opening up a new field of plant biology.

A growing branch of research on how plants use exosomes to interact with their environment is opening up a new field of plant biology.

The vesicles promote metastasis after chemotherapy, but the authors say the results shouldn’t alarm patients and may point to ways to improve treatments.

Levels of tau, amyloid-β 42, and IL-10 extracted from extracellular vesicles that started out in the brain were higher in military personal suffering head injuries compared with healthy soldiers.

Exosomes are emerging as key players in metastasis.

Cellular blebs shed by tumor cells can process short stretches of RNA that go on to induce tumor formation in neighboring cells.

Recent developments in cell transfection and molecular delivery technologies

Unlike the usual smooth, spherical shape of exosomes, glioblastoma-derived exosomes appear to have long nanofilaments protruding from their surfaces.

Vesicles released by melanoma cells stimulate pro-metastasis behaviors in bone marrow cells.

MicroRNAs from plants accumulate in mammalian blood and tissues, where they can regulate gene expression.

These small membrane vesicles do much more than clean up a cell’s trash—they also carry signals to distant parts of the body, where they can impact multiple dimensions of cellular life.

Exosomes are small membrane vesicles secreted by most cell types. Internal vesicles form by the inward budding of cellular compartments known as multivesicular endosomes (MVE). 

Meet some of the people featured in the July 2011 issue of The Scientist.