Role of exosomes in immune regulation

Exosomes are small vesicles originating from late endosomes, 30–100 nm in diameter with typical cup‐shape morphology. They are reported to bear high levels of a narrow spectrum of molecules involved in immune response and signal transduction. Apart from removing obsolete membrane proteins, some surp...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of cellular and molecular medicine 2006-04, Vol.10 (2), p.364-375
Main Authors: Li, Xiao‐Bo, Zhang, Zhi‐Ren, Schluesener, Hermann J., Xu, Shun‐Qing
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
B cells
Cellular signal transduction
Clinical trials
Cytology
Dendritic cells
Endosomes
Exocytosis
Exosomes
Humans
Immune response
Immunological tolerance
Immunoregulation
Immunosuppression - methods
Immunotherapy
Immunotherapy - methods
Medical research
Medicine, Experimental
Membrane proteins
Models, Biological
Neoplasms - immunology
Neoplasms - therapy
Neoplasms, Experimental - immunology
Neoplasms, Experimental - therapy
Phenomenin Review Series
Physiological aspects
Signal transduction
tumor
Tumors
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Summary:Exosomes are small vesicles originating from late endosomes, 30–100 nm in diameter with typical cup‐shape morphology. They are reported to bear high levels of a narrow spectrum of molecules involved in immune response and signal transduction. Apart from removing obsolete membrane proteins, some surprising biological functions of exosomes were unveiled recently and their applications in immunotherapy of tumors are currently intensively investigated. Dendritic cell‐ (DC) and tumor‐derived exosomes have considerable anti‐tumor effects in experimental studies and several clinical trials. Despite their potential applications in eliciting a “positive” immune response, exosomes might induce some “unwanted” immune responses, such as immune tolerance and immune evasion. Therefore further investigations about the physiological functions of exosomes and the optimal way of exosome application in tumor immunotherapy are necessary. This review presents recent developments in the field of exosome research and focuses on its applications to tumor immunotherapy.
ISSN:1582-1838
1582-4934
DOI:10.1111/j.1582-4934.2006.tb00405.x