Co‐isolation of extracellular vesicles and high‐density lipoproteins using density gradient ultracentrifugation

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) facilitate intercellular communication by carrying bioactive molecules such as proteins, messenger RNA, and micro (mi)RNAs. Recently, high-density lipoproteins (HDL) isolated from human plasma were also reported to transport miRNA to other cells. HDL, when isolated from human plasma, ranges in density between 1.063 and 1.21 g/mL, which grossly overlap with the reported density of EVs. Consequently, HDL and EV will be co-isolated when using density gradient ultracentrifugation. Thus, more stringent isolation/separation procedures of EV and HDL are essential to know their relative contribution to the pool of circulating bioactive molecules.