Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 28, 2026

Purification and microRNA Profiling of Exosomes Derived from Blood and Culture Media
Published on: June 14, 2013
ExoCarta 2012: database of exosomal proteins, RNA and lipids
Suresh Mathivanan1, Cassie J Fahner, Gavin E Reid
1Department of Biochemistry, La Trobe Institute for Molecular Science, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Victoria 3086, Australia. Richard.Simpson@latrobe.edu.au
Abstract:
Exosomes are membraneous nanovesicles of endocytic origin released by most cell types from diverse organisms; they play a critical role in cell-cell communication. ExoCarta (http://www.exocarta.org) is a manually curated database of exosomal proteins, RNA and lipids. The database catalogs information from both published and unpublished exosomal studies. The mode of exosomal purification and characterization, the biophysical and molecular properties are listed in the database aiding biomedical scientists in assessing the quality of the exosomal preparation and the corresponding data obtained. Currently, ExoCarta (Version 3.1) contains information on 11,261 protein entries, 2375 mRNA entries and 764 miRNA entries that were obtained from 134 exosomal studies. In addition to the data update, as a new feature, lipids identified in exosomes are added to ExoCarta. We believe that this free web-based community resource will aid researchers in identifying molecular signatures (proteins/RNA/lipids) that are specific to certain tissue/cell type derived exosomes and trigger new exosomal studies.
Related Concept Videos
Overview of Exosomes
Stahl et al. discovered exosomes in 1983, but the exosomes were initially considered waste products released from the...
Exocytosis
Exocytosis
Exocytosis is the opposite of endocytosis, which brings molecules inside the cell. Sometimes, the released materials are signaling molecules. For example, neurons typically use exocytosis to release neurotransmitters. Cells also use exocytosis to insert proteins such as ion channels into their cell membranes, secrete proteins for use in the extracellular matrix, or...

