Membrane vesicles as conveyors of immune responses

THERY, C; OSTROWSKI, M; SEGURA, E

NATURE REVIEWS IMMUNOLOGY

Año: 2009 vol. 9 p. 581 - 593

1474-1733

In multicellular organisms, communication between cells mainly involves thesecretion of proteins that then bind to receptors on neighbouring cells. But another mode ofintercellular communication — the release of membrane vesicles — has recently become thesubject of increasing interest. Membrane vesicles are complex structures composed of a lipidbilayer that contains transmembrane proteins and encloses soluble hydrophilic componentsderived from the cytosol of the donor cell. These vesicles have been shown to affect thephysiology of neighbouring recipient cells in various ways, from inducing intracellularsignalling following binding to receptors to conferring new properties after the acquisitionof new receptors, enzymes or even genetic material from the vesicles. This Review focuseson the role of membrane vesicles, in particular exosomes, in the communication betweenimmune cells, and between tumour and immune cells.