Figure 1

Release of extracellular vesicles (EVs) during storage of whole blood vs. platelet-free plasma (PFP). (a) Scheme summarizing the experimental set-up. Freshly drawn whole blood anticoagulated with heparin or citrate was either centrifuged immediately to obtain fresh PFP, or stored (3 h, 37 °C) prior to the generation of PFP. For comparison, PFP was stored (3 h, 37 °C) prior to analysis. EVs were characterized by flow cytometry using CD41 as marker for platelet origin, CD235a as marker for red blood cell origin, and lactadherin as marker for phosphatidylserine exposure as described in the Methods section. (b) Quantification of EVs in fresh PFP, stored PFP, and in PFP from stored whole blood revealed a significant release of platelet-derived EVs during the storage of heparinized whole blood (n = 3, p ≤ 0.05; paired t-test). Representative flow cytometry scatter plots are given in Supplementary Fig. S2.