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Specificities of secretion and uptake of exosomes and other extracellular vesicles for cell-to-cell communication

Nature Cell Biology volume 21, pages 9–17 (2019)Cite this article

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Abstract

The ability of exosomes to transfer cargo from donor to acceptor cells, thereby triggering phenotypic changes in the latter, has generated substantial interest in the scientific community. However, the extent to which exosomes differ from other extracellular vesicles in terms of their biogenesis and functions remains ill-defined. Here, we discuss the current knowledge on the specificities of exosomes and other types of extracellular vesicles, and their roles as important agents of cell-to-cell communication.

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Fig. 1: Physical characteristics of the different EV subtypes.
Fig. 2: Mechanisms of EV secretion.
Fig. 3: The three steps of EV uptake by acceptor cells.

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Acknowledgements

We apologize to the numerous authors who we could not cite the work of owing to space limitations. Our work is supported by INSERM, Institut Curie, Ministry of Education, and grants from INCa (INCA-11548), NIDA (DA040385 under subaward from Johns Hopkins Medical University), ANRS (2015-1), French National Research Agency (ANR-10-IDEX-0001-02 PSL* and ANR- 11-LABX-0043), SIDACTION (17-1-AAE-1138), Fondation ARC (PGA1 RF20180206962 to C.T. and PJA 20171206453 to G.L.) and Canceropôle Ile-de-France (Emergence grant 2018 to G.L.).

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  1. Institut Curie, PSL Research University, INSERM U932, Paris, France

    Mathilde Mathieu, Lorena Martin-Jaular, Grégory Lavieu & Clotilde Théry

  2. Université Paris Descartes, Paris, France

    Mathilde Mathieu

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  1. Mathilde Mathieu
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  2. Lorena Martin-Jaular
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  3. Grégory Lavieu
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Correspondence to Clotilde Théry.

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Mathieu, M., Martin-Jaular, L., Lavieu, G. et al. Specificities of secretion and uptake of exosomes and other extracellular vesicles for cell-to-cell communication. Nat Cell Biol 21, 9–17 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41556-018-0250-9

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