Extracellular vesicles in obesity and diabetes mellitus

Cell-to-cell communication happens via diverse mechanisms including the synthesis, release and transfer to target cells of extracellular vesicles (EVs). EVs include nanovesicles (i.e., exosomes) and microvesicles, including apoptotic bodies. The amount and cargo of released EVs, which consist of microRNAs (miRNAs), mRNA, proteins, DNA, among other molecules, are altered in obesity and diabetes mellitus. EVs from these diseases show with altered cargo including several miRNAs and the enrichment with molecules involved in inflammation, immune efficiency, and cell activation. The role of EVs in obesity regards with adipocytes-released vesicles that may end in a systemic insulin resistance. In diabetes mellitus, the exosomes cargo may signal to transform a normal phenotype into a diabetic phenotype in endothelial cells. The evidence of EVs as modulators of cell function is increasing; however, it is still unclear whether exosomes or microvesicles are a trustable and useful marker for the diagnose or early detection of obesity or diabetes mellitus. In this review, we summarise the reported information regarding EVs involvement in obesity, T1 and T2 diabetes mellitus, and gestational diabetes mellitus. We emphasise the fact that studies addressing a potential effect of obesity or diabetes mellitus on cell function and the severity of the diseases are done in patients suffering simultaneously with both of these diseases, i.e., diabesity. Unfortunately, the lack of information regarding the biological effects and the potential involved mechanisms makes difficult to understand the role of the EVs as a marker of these and perhaps other diseases.