Minimal experimental requirements for definition of extracellular vesicles and their functions: a position statement from the International Society for Extracellular Vesicles

• Main Authors: Jan Lötvall, Andrew F. Hill, Fred Hochberg, Edit I. Buzás, Dolores Di Vizio, Christopher Gardiner, Yong Song Gho, Igor V. Kurochkin, Suresh Mathivanan, Peter Quesenberry, Susmita Sahoo, Hidetoshi Tahara, Marca H. Wauben, Kenneth W. Witwer, Clotilde Théry
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Taylor & Francis Group 2014-12-01
• Series: Journal of Extracellular Vesicles
• Subjects: extracellular vesicles; microvesicles; microparticles; exosomes; ectosomes; extracellular RNA
• Online Access: http://www.journalofextracellularvesicles.net/index.php/jev/article/view/26913/37731
• ISSN: 2001-3078

Secreted membrane-enclosed vesicles, collectively called extracellular vesicles (EVs), which include exosomes, ectosomes, microvesicles, microparticles, apoptotic bodies and other EV subsets, encompass a very rapidly growing scientific field in biology and medicine. Importantly, it is currently technically challenging to obtain a totally pure EV fraction free from non-vesicular components for functional studies, and therefore there is a need to establish guidelines for analyses of these vesicles and reporting of scientific studies on EV biology. Here, the International Society for Extracellular Vesicles (ISEV) provides researchers with a minimal set of biochemical, biophysical and functional standards that should be used to attribute any specific biological cargo or functions to EVs.