Fig. 1
From: The potential roles of cigarette smoke-induced extracellular vesicles in oral leukoplakia
Biogenesis of extracellular vesicles. Extracelluar vesicles (EVs) are a heterogeneous group of cell-derived membranous structures that are categories as exosomes and ectosomes according to their different mechanism of formation and approximate size. Exosomes are EVs in the size range of 40–160 nm in diameter with an endosomal origin and generate by the fusion of multivesicular bodies, whereas ectosomes, including microvesicles and microparticles, are ubiquitous vesicles directly released from the plasma membrane through outward budding with a size range of 50 nm–1 μm in diameter