Microparticles: A New Perspective in Central Nervous System Disorders

Table 1

Physical properties of membrane-derived vesicles.

	Exosomes	Microparticles	Apoptotic bodies
Size	40–100 nm	100–1000 nm	>1000 nm
Appearance	Homogeneous	Heterogeneous	Heterogeneous
Sedimentation	100,000 g	10,000 g	1,200 g
Site of origin	Multivesicular bodies (MVBs)	Plasma membrane	Cells undergoing apoptosis
Lipid composition	Cholesterol, ceramide	Phosphatidylserine, cholesterol	Phosphatidylserine
Main protein markers	Tetraspanins, GPI-proteins	Integrins, selectins, CD40 ligand	Histones

Adapted from Burger et al. [31]; Cocucci et al. [43]; Théry et al. [28].