Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale U1015, Villejuif, 94805, France.
Semin Immunopathol. 2011 Sep;33(5):419-40. doi: 10.1007/s00281-010-0233-9. Epub 2010 Dec 21.
To communicate, cells are known to release in their environment proteins which bind to receptors on surrounding cells. But cells also secrete more complex structures, called membrane vesicles, composed of a lipid bilayer with inserted transmembrane proteins, enclosing an internal content of hydrophilic components. Exosomes represent a specific subclass of such secreted membrane vesicles, which, despite having been described more than 20 years ago by two groups studying reticulocyte maturation, have only recently received attention from the scientific community. This renewed interest originated first from the description of exosome secretion by antigen-presenting cells, suggesting a potential role in immune responses, and very recently by the identification of the presence of RNA (both messenger and microRNA) in exosomes, suggesting a potential transfer of genetic information between cells. In this review, we will describe the conclusions of 20 years of studies on the immune properties of exosomes and the most recent advances on their roles and potential uses as markers or as therapeutic tools during pathologies, especially in cancer.
为了进行通讯，细胞已知会在其环境中释放与周围细胞上的受体结合的蛋白质。但细胞也会分泌更复杂的结构，称为膜囊泡，由双层脂质和插入的跨膜蛋白组成，内部包含亲水性成分。外泌体是这种分泌的膜囊泡的一个特定亚类，尽管两个研究网织红细胞成熟的小组在 20 多年前就已经描述过，但直到最近才受到科学界的关注。这种新的兴趣首先源于抗原呈递细胞对外泌体分泌的描述，表明其在免疫反应中具有潜在作用，最近又发现外泌体中存在 RNA（信使 RNA 和 microRNA），表明细胞之间存在遗传信息的潜在转移。在这篇综述中，我们将描述 20 年来关于外泌体免疫特性的研究结论，以及最近在外泌体在疾病（尤其是癌症）中作为标志物或治疗工具的作用和潜在用途方面的进展。
