Abstract
Intercellular communication can be carried out by circulating systemic and/or locally released extracellular vesicles (EVs), produced by nearly every cell type and tissue, and are involved in physiological and pathological processes. In recent years, EVs have been identified in reproductive tissues, such as oviduct and uterus, and have been shown to be related to several events important for reproductive success. The understanding of their functions in reproduction has important implications for assisted reproductive technologies, for the treatment of infertility in humans and improvement of reproduction efficiency in animals. To study such EVs, it is necessary to isolate and concentrate them from fluid samples, which in the case of reproductive tissues, are usually of limited volume. Several methods for EV isolation are available such as chromatography, ultracentrifugation, polymer-based precipitation, and immunoaffinity.Outcomes can be variable in terms of the amount and quality of isolated EVs, due to the type of isolation method. The choice of method, or a different combination of methods, may depend on the type of sample and scientific question to be addressed in a given study. In this chapter, we describe a method for isolation of EVs from bovine oviductal and uterine fluids for use in functional studies. The method combines size exclusion chromatography and ultracentrifugation. We also describe the different protocols for characterization of isolated EVs (transmission electron microscopy, nanoparticle tracking analysis, and western blot), as well as the isolation of RNA content in EVs, and their miRNAs profiling for functional studies.