Extracellular vesicles from Leishmania-infected macrophages confer an anti-infection cytokine-production profile to naïve macrophages.

Background: Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are structures with phospholipid bilayer membranes and 100-1000 nm diameters. These vesicles are released from cells upon activation of surface receptors and/or apoptosis. The production of EVs by dendritic cells, mast cells, macrophages, and B and T lymphocytes has been extensively reported in the literature.