Exosomes are 60 - 180 nm membrane vesicles secreted by most cell types in vivo and in vitro. These microvesicles are produced by the inward budding of multivesicular bodies (MVBs) and are released from the cell into the microenvironment following the fusion of MVBs with the plasma membrane. Exosomes are extracellular, nanoshuttle organelles that function as signal carriers and tissue reshapers through their cargo of RNA, proteins, and lipids, and are involved in a wide range of healthy and pathogenic processes including cancer, inflammation, immunity, CNS function, and cardiac cell function. They are found in blood, urine, amniotic fluid, breast milk, malignant ascites fluids and contain distinct subsets of microRNAs and proteins depending upon the cell type from which they are secreted, making them useful for biomarker discovery.
Exosomes are being studied for their role in basic biological processes as well as for their use as biomarkers and even as engineered tools for therapeutic delivery. A full spectrum of tools for exosome isolation, detection, quantitation and engineering as well as kits and services for biomarker discovery by next generation sequencing, mass spectrometry and lipidomics are offered.