Fig. 5

Surface marker profiling of exosomes by Western blotting. a Total protein concentration of exosomes by bicinchoninic acid assay (BCA): Representative graph plots depict the comparison of total protein concentration in exosomes which showed that the concentration of exosomal protein was significantly higher for the SUC isolation method. b Western blot for CD63 and Alix protein expression in exosomes (50 μL of total exosomal protein was loaded). GAPDH was used as a housekeeping gene. Unlike CD63, Alix was expressed specifically in exosomes. c Densitometric analysis of CD63 and Alix expression in exosomes showed a higher protein expression for the SUC isolation method. Results are mean ± standard error of the mean of three independent experiments. *Significant with P value of less than 0.05. Abbreviations: AD adipose tissue, ADSC adipose tissue–derived mesenchymal stem cell, AU arbitrary unit, BM bone marrow, BMSC bone marrow–derived mesenchymal stem cell, ns non-significant, SUC one-step sucrose cushion ultracentrifugation, UC direct ultracentrifugation