Exosomes are membranous tiny vesicles secreted by cells, which are widely found in the extracellular matrix and various body fluids and carry a variety of biologically functional molecules such as proteins, lipids, messenger RNA (mRNA) and microRNA (miRNA). Exosomes not only play important biological roles in the field of immunology and oncology, but also have potential application value in the field of forensic medicine. This article reviews the discovery, production and degeneration mechanism, biological functions, isolation and identification methods of exosomes, summarizes the research on exosomes and their significance in the field of forensic science, and discusses their applications in body fluid identification, individual identification, postmortem interval estimation to provide ideas for the application of exosomes in forensic work.
外泌体是一种由细胞分泌的微小膜性囊泡，广泛存在于细胞外基质和多种体液中，携带蛋白质、脂类、信使RNA（messenger RNA，mRNA）和微小RNA（microRNA，miRNA）等多种生物功能分子，不仅在免疫学和肿瘤学领域发挥重要的生物学作用，而且在法医学领域也具有潜在应用价值。本文对外泌体的发现，产生和降解机制，生物学功能，分离和鉴定方法进行综述，总结其在法医学领域的研究和意义，探讨其在体液识别、个体识别、死亡时间推断中的应用，为外泌体在法医学中的实际应用提供思路。.
Keywords: estimation of postmortem interval; exosomes; forensic medicine; individual identification; review.