Exosomes

An exosome is an extracellular vesicle: a sphere of cell membrane, typically 30 to 150 nanometres across — small enough that thousands would fit across the width of a human hair — enclosing a sample of the interior of the cell that made it.

They are not debris. They are assembled deliberately inside the cell, in a compartment where the membrane buds inward to form vesicles, and released when that compartment fuses with the cell surface.

Practically every cell type makes them, and they are found in blood, saliva, urine and breast milk.

Ordinary cell signalling sends a single molecule that binds a receptor. An exosome does something different: it delivers a parcel — proteins, lipids, and RNA, including messenger RNA and microRNA — packaged inside a membrane that protects the contents in transit.

When an exosome reaches a recipient cell it can bind receptors on the surface, fuse with the membrane, or be taken up whole. Cargo released inside the recipient can change what that cell does. MicroRNA is especially significant, because a single one can adjust the output of many genes at once.

Because an exosome carries a sample of its parent cell, exosomes from different tissues carry different cargo — which is why RediCell supplies tissue-specific exosome preparations rather than one generic line.

RediCell exosome preparations are collected from the culture of the corresponding cell line — mesenchymal, neural, cardiac, dermal and the rest — all from the same umbilical cord tissue source. Preparations are supplied by particle count.

Tissue-specific lines are available across the range, including dermal papilla (hair follicle) and urogenital preparations, and a combined mesenchymal / neural / muscle matrix.