Microparticules circulantes, acteurs et marqueurs émergents en pathologie humaine

Microparticles (MP) are small-sized membrane vesicles released by most cellular types in response to activation or apoptosis. Although they have been considered as cellular dusts for a long time, MP represent a circulating reservoir of bioactive molecules displaying multiple functions (coagulation, fibrinolysis, inflammation, angiogenesis) which are able to vectorize or amplify biological information. They can be identified in the peripheral blood and their level is increased in many pathological situations in which they have a diagnostic or prognostic meaning. Because of the increasing interest raised by MP in various clinical fields such as thrombotic and inflammatory diseases, transfusion or cancers, methodologies to measure them have been developped. An active standardization process is currently on going. Thus, MP open new perspectives to apply them not only as biomarkers of procoagulant, inflammatory or tumoral disorders but also as new pharmacological targets.