Glioblastoma tumor cells release microvesicles, which contain mRNA, miRNA and angiogenic proteins. These tumor-derived microvesicles transfer genetic information and proteins to normal cells. Previous reports demonstrated that the increased microvesicles in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of patients with glioblastoma up-regulate procoagulant activity. The concentration of microvesicles was closely r...

Microvesicles were isolated from the conditioned media of 3 cell lines (MDA-MB-231, AsPC-1 and A375) by ultracentrifugation at a range of relative centrifugal forces, and the tissue factor (TF) protein and activity, microvesicle number, size distribution and relative density compared. Also, by expressing TF-tGFP in cells and isolating the microvesicles, the relative density of TF-containing mic...

One of the responses of platelets to stimulation is activation of intracellular calpain (the Ca(2+)-dependent protease). Previously, we have shown that activation of calpain in platelets is involved in the generation of platelet procoagulant activity. Because procoagulant activity is present on the microvesicles that are shed from activated platelets, in this study we examined whether calpain i...

Urinary exosomes or microvesicles are being studied intensively to identify potential new biomarkers for renal disease. We sought to identify whether these microvesicles contain nucleic acids. We isolated microvesicles from human urine in the same density range as that previously described for urinary exosomes and found them to have an RNA integrity profile similar to that of kidney tissue, inc...

Microvesicle biogenesis is a highly regulated process. Aberrant release of microvesicles from cancer cells have been associated with their invasiveness and prognosis. However, the mechanism of aberrant release remains poorly understood. Herein, we found that hepatocellular carcinoma cells shed more microvesicles than normal hepatocytes and miR-200a were shown to inhibit the release of microvesi...

Microvesicles are receiving increased attention not only as biomarkers but also as mediators of cell communication and as integral effectors of disease. Platelets present a major source of microvesicles and release these microvesicles either spontaneously or upon activation. Platelet-derived microvesicles retain many features of their parent cells and have been shown to exert modulatory effects...

Microvesicles are a recently described way of cell communication that has been implicated in a number of biological processes, including neuroinflammation. Widely investigated as biomarkers in oncology and neurological disorders, little is known of the role of microvesicles in the pathogenesis of diseases such as multiple sclerosis (MS). Several evidences suggest that pro-inflammatory microglia...

Shiga toxin is the main virulence factor of enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli, a non-invasive pathogen that releases virulence factors in the intestine, causing hemorrhagic colitis and, in severe cases, hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS). HUS manifests with acute renal failure, hemolytic anemia and thrombocytopenia. Shiga toxin induces endothelial cell damage leading to platelet deposition in thr...

Blood and other body f luids contain cell-derived microvesicles. The presence of microvesicles in cancer patients was already noticed in the late 1970s. Since then, the prothrombotic state in cancer patients has invariably been associated with the presence of such microvesicles. More recently, a growing body of evidence supports an important contribution of microvesicles to cancer cell survival...