Exosomes in urine biomarker discovery.

Nanovesicles present in urine the so-called urinary exosomes have been found to be secreted by every epithelial cell type lining the urinary tract system in human. Urinary exosomes are an appealing source for biomarker discovery as they contain molecular constituents of their cell of origin, including proteins and genetic materials, and they can be isolated in a non-invasive manner. Following the discovery of urinary exosomes in 2004, many studies have been performed using urinary exosomes as a starting material to identify biomarkers in various renal, urogenital, and systemic diseases. Here, we describe the discovery of urinary exosomes and address the issues on the collection, isolation, and normalization of urinary exosomes as well as delineate the systems biology approach to biomarker discovery using urinary exosomes.