A Protocol for Exosome Isolation and Characterization: Evaluation of Ultracentrifugation, Density-Gradient Separation, and Immunoaffinity Capture Methods

Exosomes are 40–150 nm extracellular vesicles that are released from a multitude of cell types, and perform diverse cellular functions including intercellular communication, antigen presentation, and transfer of tumorigenic proteins, mRNA and miRNA. Exosomes are important regulators of the cellular niche, and their altered characteristics in many diseases, such as cancer, suggest their importance for diagnostic and therapeutic applications, and as drug delivery vehicles. Exosomes have been purified from biological fluids and in vitro cell cultures using a variety of strategies and techniques. In this chapter, we reveal the protocol and key insights into the isolation, purification and characterization of exosomes, distinct from shed microvesicles and apoptotic blebs. Using the colorectal cancer cell line LIM1863 as a cell model, a comprehensive evaluation of exosome isolation methods including ultracentrifugation (UC-Exos), OptiPrep™ density-based separation (DG-Exos), and immunoaffinity capture using anti-EpCAM-coated magnetic beads (IAC-Exos) were examined. All exosome isolation methodologies contained 40–150 nm vesicles based on electron microscopy, and positive for exosome markers (Alix, TSG101, HSP70) based on immunoblotting. This protocol employed a proteomic profiling approach to characterize the protein composition of exosomes, and label-free spectral counting to evaluate the effectiveness of each method in exosome isolation. Based on the number of M...
Source: Springer protocols feed by Protein Science - Category: Biochemistry Source Type: news