title: Minimal experimental requirements for definition of extracellular vesicles and their functions: a position statement from the International Society for Extracellular Vesicles.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Krefting Research Centre, University of Gothenburg, Göteborg, Sweden.
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lötvall
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Bio21 Molecular Science and Biotechnology Institute, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Australia.
authors.forename: Andrew F
authors.initials: AF
authors.lastname: Hill
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, University of California at San Diego, San Diego, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Fred
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Hochberg
authors.affiliation: Department of Genetics, Cell- and Immunobiology, Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary.
authors.forename: Edit I
authors.initials: EI
authors.lastname: Buzás
authors.affiliation: Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Dolores
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Di Vizio
authors.affiliation: Nuffield Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
authors.forename: Christopher
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Gardiner
authors.affiliation: Department of Life Sciences, Pohang University of Science and Technology, Pohang, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Yong Song
authors.initials: YS
authors.lastname: Gho
authors.affiliation: Bioinformatics Institute, Singapore, Singapore.
authors.forename: Igor V
authors.initials: IV
authors.lastname: Kurochkin
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia.
authors.forename: Suresh
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mathivanan
authors.affiliation: The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence, RI, USA.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Quesenberry
authors.affiliation: Cardiovascular Research Center, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Susmita
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sahoo
authors.affiliation: Department of Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hiroshima University Institute of Biomedical & Health Sciences, Hiroshima, Japan.
authors.forename: Hidetoshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Tahara
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Faculty of Veterinary medicine, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Marca H
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Wauben
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular and Comparative Pathobiology, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Kenneth W
authors.initials: KW
authors.lastname: Witwer
authors.affiliation: INSERM U932, Institut Curie, 26 rue d'Ulm, 75005, Paris, France; clotilde.thery@curie.fr.
authors.forename: Clotilde
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Théry
keywords: ectosomes; exosomes; extracellular RNA; extracellular vesicles; microparticles; microvesicles