Cutting edge approaches for rapid characterization of airway exosomes

Exosomes have been described as promising biomarkers for understanding disease progression and prognosis. These lipid membrane nanoparticles derived from airway cells have been shown to have immunomodulatory effects, such as driving inflammatory responses in asthma. These emerging evidences demonstrating an important pathophysiological role of exosomes warrants the development of novel approaches for isolation and rapid characterization of exosomes, which would be applicable for both translational and clinical studies. In this review article, we describe two methods of rapid exosomes characterization: (1) imaging flow cytometry using ImageStream; and (2) conventional flow cytometry using the BD Symphony A5 platform. We also explore sorting of exosomes using the BD Aria.