Fig. 1

Flow chart of the designed protocol for isolating apoptotic bodies from blood samples. Whole blood was drawn from patients with either ischemic stroke or neurodegenerative pathology and from healthy volunteers by venipuncture and collected into tubes that contained an anticoagulant (sodium citrate). The plasma phase was separated from blood cells by a first centrifugation (at 160×g for 10 min). After that, plasma was centrifuged (at 700×g for 10 min) again to spin down the cellular debris. The fluid was then collected, diluted 1:1 with TBS 1X and further used to isolate apoptotic bodies. Apoptotic bodies were pelleted by centrifugation at 14000×g for 30 min