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Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are membrane-bound vesicles released by all cell types. They contain lipids, proteins, metabolites, and nucleic acids and transfer these materials locally between cells and distally between tissues and organs. There are three primary subtypes of EVs: apoptotic bodies, microvesicles, and exosomes1,2. Here, we focus our discussion on exosomes and their associated proteins.
Exosomes are secreted vesicles originating from the inward budding of early endosomes into the multivesicular body (MVB). The MVB then fuses with the plasma membrane, releasing the exosomes into the extracellular space to travel to other cells3,4. Exosomes exist on a spectrum of sizes ranging from 40 to 150 nm and are enriched with endosomal transmembrane proteins known as tetraspanins (CD9, CD63, CD81), membrane-bound endosomal sorting complex required for the transport (ESCRT), and lipid raft-associated proteins1,2, 5,6,7.
Characterizing the biochemical makeup of exosomes has become a popular field for researchers to better understand their functional nature. Many methods exist for visualizing and characterizing exosomes, including nanoscale flow cytometry, nanoparticle tracking analysis (NTA), scanning and transmission electron microscopy (TEM), surface plasmon resonance, resistive pulse sensing, and traditional light microscopy, each of which contains intrinsic pros and cons8,9. TEM and cryo-EM can achieve nanometer-based resolution, but often require dehydrating and freeze-fracture steps, thereby shrinking or lysing EVs10,11. NTA relies on light scattering, allowing for the characterization of hundreds of EVs at a time, but is an indirect measurement of particle size and cannot easily distinguish between EVs, viruses, and protein aggregates12,13,14,15,16. Nanoscale flow cytometry employs light scattering from an excitation path, which can then be translated into size measurements, but is an emerging technology, and there is little consensus on what size of particles are within the linear range of detection for various instruments12,17,18.
Traditional light microscopy using fluorescent proteins or dyes has been one of the most heavily employed techniques for visualizing subcellular compartments, protein complexes, and signaling machinery within a cell. While this technique proves useful in visualizing the localization of complexes, the diffraction limit of traditional light microscopy (around 250-400 nm) prevents the clear resolution of proteins or structures in the typical size range of an exosome (40-150 nm)12,19,20.
Super-resolution microscopy, namely, direct stochastic optical reconstruction microscopy (dSTORM), distinguishes itself from conventional light microscopy by employing the photoswitchable properties of specific fluorophores and detecting these blinking events to reconstruct images down to nanometer precision21. Photoswitching events are collected using a high-framerate detection camera over the course of tens of thousands of individual exposures, and a point spread function is used to map with high confidence the exact location of the photoswitching fluorophore19,20,22. This allows dSTORM to bypass the diffraction limit of light microscopy. Several groups have reported the use of super-resolution techniques for visualizing and tracking exosomes and their associated proteins22,23,24,25. The final resolution depends on the biophysical properties of the fluorophore, but often ranges from +/-10-100 nm along the XY-axis, allowing single-molecule resolution.
The ability to resolve individual fluorophores at this scale on the XY-axis has revolutionized microscopy. However, there is little data on the three-dimensional (3-D) dSTORM of an exosome. Therefore, we sought to establish a standard operating procedure (SOP) for dSTORM-based visualization and characterization of purified EVs, including exosomes to nanometer precision in 3-D.