Exosomes, natural and nanovesicular structures surrounded by a lipid membrane, tend to be secreted toward extracellular environments by almost all cell types. Late studies have shown them to be effective in several complex biological processes like cancer development and metastasis, immune system regulation, cellular signal transduction, stem cell differentiation, and regeneration of damaged tissues. Although there are many studies dealing with the role of exosomes in the aforementioned fields, the mechanisms remained largely unknown. There is therefore a need for further study on exosome isolation from different sources. While researchers mostly use serum, plasma, urine, and cell culture media as a source for exosome isolation, there are no studies dealing with direct isolation of exosomes from whole organs in literature. In this study, we propose a protocol for effective isolation of exosomes from whole organs. Mouse brain, heart, and liver were chosen as the sources of exosomes in this study. Isolated exosomes were successfully characterized with BCA test, western blot, transmission electron microscopy and ELISA.
Keywords: Exosomes; Extracellular vesicles; Isolation; Nanovesicles; Ultrasonication.