AFM-Based Mechanobiology of Extracellular Vesicles

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are lipid-bound nano-sized vesicles secreted by all cells. There are emerging pieces of evidence suggesting mechanical properties of single EVs offer important insights into their structure, biomarker roles, and potential therapeutic applications. Herein, we discussed the mechanical aspects of single EV particles using atomic force microscopy (AFM)-based approach. We discussed that AFM is not only an imaging tool of EVs that delivers high-resolution images but the label-free AFM force spectroscopy could also be valuable to study the mechano-responses of single EVs. We propose that the multi-parametric AFM structure-mechanical property analysis has important implications for EV biology research and clinical applications.