Isolation and Characterization of Extracellular Vesicles from Human and Mouse Pancreatic Tissue

Extracellular Vesicles (EVs) have been increasingly recognized as mediators of intercellular communication in pancreatic tissues, carrying molecular cargo reflective of their cellular origin; however, their direct isolation from solid tissue remains technically challenging due to the high enzymatic activity, lipid content, and structural fragility of the pancreas. Here, we establish a pancreas-adapted and reproducible workflow for the isolation of EVs directly from human and mouse pancreatic tissues across tumor and non-tumorous contexts. This approach integrates controlled tissue processing, gentle enzymatic-mechanical dissociation, and sequential centrifugation to enable efficient vesicle recovery while preserving structural integrity and minimizing contamination. The isolated EVs exhibited characteristic size distributions, intact morphology, and enrichment of canonical EV markers, accompanied by depletion of intracellular components. Quantitative analyses demonstrated high reproducibility across independent isolations, with a coefficient of variation of less than 6%. Proteomic profiling revealed selective enrichment of vesicle-associated proteins and preservation of molecular differences between tumor and normal pancreatic tissues, indicating that tissue-derived EVs retain disease-associated protein signatures. Together, these results establish a standardized framework for pancreas-derived EV isolation that supports reproducible downstream analyses and facilitates molecular characterization of pancreatic tissues.