Exosomes: messengers and mediators of tumor-stromal interactions

Intercellular communication is one of the most important factors involved in the maintenance of tissue homeo-stasis. The alteration of intercellular interaction correlates with a lot of human diseases including canceroge-nesis.Thereareseveraltypesofsuchinterconnection.Firstofall,itisadirectcell-cellcontact,asittakesplaceinepithelium.Thedisturbanceofthiscommunicationisexpressedasalossofcell-cell,cell-matrixcontacts,distur-bancesofcellpolarityetc.Anotherwayofintercellularinteractioninvolvesmutualinfluenceviaparacrinefac-torsproducedbycorrespondingcells.However,thereisanotherkindofinformationexchangebetweenthecells,namelymicrovesiculartransportation.Itwasrevealedthattheexosomestakepartinintercellularcommunicationin normal tissues as well as in malignant neoplasia. The present review provides the recent information on theformationofexosomes,theircompositionandespeciallytheexosomeparticipationintumor-stromalinteractions.Keywords: exosome, tumor–stromal interaction.