Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 22, 2025

Lipid Droplet Isolation for Quantitative Mass Spectrometry Analysis
Published on: April 17, 2017
Cellular communication through extracellular vesicles and lipid droplets
Irumi Amarasinghe1, William Phillips1,2, Andrew F Hill3
1School of Agriculture, Biomedicine and Environment La Trobe University Melbourne Australia.
None:
Cellular communication is essential for effective coordination of biological processes. One major form of intercellular communication occurs via the release of extracellular vesicles (EVs). These vesicles mediate intercellular communication through the transfer of their cargo and are actively explored for their role in various diseases and their potential therapeutic and diagnostic applications. Conversely, lipid droplets (LDs) are vesicles that transfer cargo within cells. Lipid droplets play roles in various diseases and evidence for their ability to transfer cargo between cells is emerging. To date, there has been little interdisciplinary research looking at the similarities and interactions between these two classes of small lipid vesicles. This review will compare the commonalities and differences between EVs and LDs including their biogenesis and secretion, isolation and characterisation methodologies, composition, and general heterogeneity and discuss challenges and opportunities in both fields.
Related Concept Videos
Exocytosis
Overview of Exosomes
Stahl et al. discovered exosomes in 1983, but the exosomes were initially considered waste products released from the...
Types of Signaling Molecules
Introduction to Membrane Traffic
The transport of soluble and membrane proteins is mediated by transport vesicles that collect cargo from one cellular compartment and deliver it to another by fusing with the target organelle membrane. The Rab...
What is Cell Signaling?
Overview of Secretory Vesicles
Various proteins regulate the aggregation of molecules inside the secretory vesicles. Chromogranins...

