Fig. 2

Isolation of exosomes from peripheral plasmas. Exosomes isolated from maternal plasma were observed under electronic microscopy, as pointed to by an arrow (a) and 50–150 nm in size determined by (b). Proteins loaded from total exosomes (total) and from resuspended supernatant (R-S) or resuspended pellet (R-P) when exosomes treated with lysis buffer during the process of exosomal isolation and probed with antibodies against progesterone receptor (PGR) and placental alkaline phosphatase (PLAP) (c, e). Protein extracted from the exosomes of pregnant women (P), a non-pregnant female (F), and a male (M) were probed with antibodies against pregnant specific globin 1 (PSG1) (d), CD63 (d), and CD9 and CD81 (d, e). The neuro-specific markers, L1CAM (L1 cell adhesion molecule) (c) and nestin (NES), can be detected from plasma exosomes (c, e)