Exosomes and Microvesicles: An introduction
The study of exosomes and other cell-derived microvesicles is an area of rapidly rowing importance and the subject of intense interest and research. The previous lack of suitable methods for their detection, analysis, enumeration and phenotyping is proving to be a significant limitation in these studies. This document shows the degree to which the technique of Nanoparticle Tracking Analysis (NTA) is helping to address these problems.
Exosomes and Microvesicles: An introduction
The study of exosomes and other cell-derived microvesicles is an area of rapidly growing importance and the subject of intense interest and research. The previous lack of suitable methods for their detection, analysis, enumeration and phenotyping is proving to be a significant limitation in these studies. This document shows the degree to which the technique of Nanoparticle Tracking Analysis (NTA) is helping to address these problems.
Nanoparticle Tracking Analysis (NTA) Overview
NTA utilizes the properties of both light scattering and Brownian motion in order to obtain the particle size distribution of samples in liquid suspension. A laser beam is passed through the sample chamber, and the particles in suspension in the path of this beam scatter light in such a manner that they can easily be visualized via a 20x magnification microscope onto which is mounted a camera. The camera, which operates at approximately 30 frames per second (fps), captures a video file of the particles moving under Brownian motion within the field of view of approximately 100 μm x 80 μm x 10 μm.
