Figure 6

Proposed model of ovarian cancer cell-derived exosome action. Tumour cells with different invasion capacity exist in a single epithelial ovarian tumour, releasing exosomes. High invasive tumour cells (SKOV-3) release significantly more exosomes (1), containing proteins involved in processes such as: cell death and survival, cellular movement, cancer, cell-to-cell signalling and interaction, cellular growth and proliferation. The let-7 family that are known to suppress cell proliferation was significantly more expressed in exosomes from high invasive exosomes (from SKOV-3). On the other hand, the miR-200 family that suppress epithelial to mesenchymal transition was only expressed in exosomes derived from low invasive cells (from OVCAR-3) (2). The miRNA profile differs between exosomes derived from cells with different invasive capacity (OVAR-3 versus SKOV-3) (3).