Comparison of Exosome Isolation Techniques for Clinical Applications

Abstract Exosomes are extracellular vesicles with significant potential in clinical applications, particularly in diagnostics and therapeutics. Effective exosome isolation is critical to ensuring their functionality and integrity, especially for clinical uses such as regenerative medicine and cancer therapy. This mini-review provides a comparative analysis of three primary exosome isolation methods: ultracentrifugation (UC), size exclusion chromatography (SEC), and microfluidic-based techniques. UC, a traditional and widely used method, is effective but lacks scalability and may compromise exosome integrity. SEC offers high purity and scalability, making it a favorable option for clinical-grade applications. Meanwhile, microfluidic-based methods provide high precision and rapid processing, with potential in diagnostic and point-of-care applications, though challenges in scalability limit their use in large-scale production. Overall, SEC shows the most promise for clinical exosome production, with microfluidic techniques offering specialized utility in diagnostics. This review underscores the importance of selecting an appropriate isolation technique to advance exosome-based clinical applications.