Abstract

Characterization and Quantification of Extracellular Vesicles and Exosomes

Alain Brisson, Professor Emeritus, University of Bordeaux

Extracellular vesicles (EV) from body fluids or conditioned media are heterogeneous mixtures containing not only bona fide EV differing by their cell or membrane origin, size, phenotype or cargo content, but also various types of non-vesicular particles and other components, either isolated or aggregated. Given the diversity of biological functions and biomedical applications borne by EV, there is an urgent need for efficient and reliable methods of EV charaterization, quantification and isolation, to improve our understanding on EV and fully exploit their potential.

This presentation will illustrate the power of immuno-gold cryo-electron microscopy combined with magnetic isolation and flow cytometry for providing a detailed and quantitative characterization of EV mixtures.