Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Comment
  • Published:

A brief guide to studying extracellular vesicle function in the context of metabolism

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are now recognized as powerful modulators of metabolism, and thus the new field of EV-mediated metabolic regulation is growing exponentially. Here, we discuss special experimental considerations for the study of EV function in metabolism.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Experimental guidelines for studying and reporting the metabolic effects of EVs.

References

  1. Couch, Y. et al. J. Extracell. Vesicles 10, e12144 (2021).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  2. Isaac, R., Reis, F. C. G., Ying, W. & Olefsky, J. M. Cell Metab. 33, 1744–1762 (2021).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  3. Welsh, J. A. et al. J. Extracell. Vesicles 13, e12404 (2024).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  4. Johnsen, K. B., Gudbergsson, J. M., Andresen, T. L. & Simonsen, J. B. Biochim. Biophys. Acta Rev. Cancer 1871, 109–116 (2019).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Karimi, N. et al. Cell. Mol. Life Sci. 75, 2873–2886 (2018).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  6. Garcia-Martin, R., Brandao, B. B., Thomou, T., Altindis, E. & Kahn, C. R. Cell Rep. 38, 110277 (2022).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  7. Flaherty, S. E. III et al. Science 363, 989–993 (2019).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  8. Zierden, H. C. et al. Sci. Rep. 13, 4568 (2023).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  9. Ying, W. et al. Cell 171, 372–384.e12 (2017).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Li, Y. et al. Comput. Struct. Biotechnol. J. 18, 2851–2859 (2020).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  11. Estrada, A. L. et al. Am. J. Physiol. Cell Physiol. 322, C246–C259 (2022).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  12. Deng, Z. B. et al. Diabetes 58, 2498–2505 (2009).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  13. Kulaj, K. et al. Nat. Commun. 14, 709 (2023).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  14. Kang, M., Jordan, V., Blenkiron, C. & Chamley, L. W. J. Extracell. Vesicles 10, e12085 (2021).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  15. Choi, Y. et al. Sci. Rep. 5, 15878 (2015).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

C.C. is supported by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH; R00-DK122019), the American Heart Association (23IPA1054013) and the Diabetes Research Center (DRC) at Washington University, NIH P30DK020579. W.Y. is supported by the NIH (R21HD107516, R00DK115998, and R01DK125560).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Contributions

D.S.L, K.S., W.Y. and C.C. wrote, revised, edited, and approved the manuscript. D.S.L generated the figure.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Clair Crewe.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

K.S. has received funding and speaker honoraria from Novo Nordisk.

Peer review

Peer review information

Nature Metabolism thanks the anonymous reviewers for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Lark, D.S., Stemmer, K., Ying, W. et al. A brief guide to studying extracellular vesicle function in the context of metabolism. Nat Metab 6, 1839–1841 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s42255-024-01112-w

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s42255-024-01112-w

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing