Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine & Perinatal Research, Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology, The University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX. Electronic address: [Email]
During pregnancy, feto-maternal communication can be mediated through extracellular vesicles, specifically exosomes, 30- to 150-nm particles released from each cell. Exosomes carry cellular signals, and traffic between fetal and maternal tissues to produce functional changes in recipient cells. Exosomes may function as a biomarker indicative of the physiologic status of their tissue of origin. These properties of exosomes during pregnancy are not well studied.
