Emerging role of extracellular vesicles in lung injury and inflammation

Lung injury and inflammation are common characterizes in many pulmonary diseases. Alveolar epithelial cells, macrophages, pulmonary microvascular endothelial cells, and neutrophils, play crucial roles in lung injury and inflammation. They can secrete extracellular vesicles (EVs), involving exosomes, microvesicles, and apoptotic bodies. EVs are considered to be novel cell-cell communication tools, transferring diverse substances such as proteins, nucleic acid and lipids. Recently, the effects of EVs produced by pulmonary structural cells, immunoregulatory cells and stem cells on pulmonary diseases have attracted much attention. We summarized the recent findings of EV-related pathogeneses, therapies and diagnoses for lung injury and inflammation in this review.