Description
Exosomes are small membraneous vesicles secreted into body fluids by tumors. Tumor exosomes contain intact and functional mRNAs, small RNAs (including miRNAs), and proteins that can alter the cellular environment to favor tumor growth. Further exploration into the molecular profiling of exosomes may increase our understanding of their roles in melanoma progression in vivo, and may have potential application in biomarker studies. In the present study, we used mRNA array profiling to identify thousands of exosomal mRNAs associated with melanoma progression and metastasis. Similarly, miRNA array profiling identified specific miRNAs, such as hsa-miR-31, -185, and -34b, involved in melanoma invasion. Our results indicate that melanoma-derived exosomes have unique gene expression signatures and miRNA profiles that may have important functions in melanoma metastasis and progression.