Exosome-enclosed microRNAs in exhaled breath hold potential for biomarker discovery in patients with pulmonary diseases

The tissue source of exosomes in EBC remains to be characterized. Because exosomes are known to mediate miRNA targeting of distant cells, we speculated whether miRNA content of exhaled breath, being contained in exosomes, might target epithelial cells of the airway. [...]we obtained scrapes of the posterior nasal respiratory epithelial cells in a separate group of subjects, examined gene expression profiles, and compared these with the targets of the miRNAs associated with asthma (see Fig E2 and Table E2 in this article's Online Repository at www.jacionline.org).