Resumen: Lung diseases (LD) are one of the most common causes of death worldwide. Although it is known that chronic airway inflammation and excessive tissue repair are processes associated with LD such as asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) or idiopathic pulmonary fibro-sis (IPF), their specific pathways remain unclear. Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are heterogeneous na-noscale membrane vesicles with an important role in cell-to-cell communication. EVs are present in general biofluids as plasma or urine but also in secretions of the airway as bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF), induced sputum (IS), nasal lavage (NL) or pharyngeal lavage. Alterations of airway EV cargo could be crucial for understanding LD. Airway EVs have shown a role in the pathogenesis of some LD such as eosinophil increase in asthma, the promotion of lung cancer in vitro models in COPD and as biomarkers to distinguishing IPF in patients with diffuse lung diseases. In addition, they also have a promising future as therapeutics for LD. In this review, we focus on the importance of airway secretions in LD, the pivotal role of EVs from those secretions on their pathophysiology and their potential for biomarker discovery. Idioma: Inglés DOI: 10.3390/ijms22020583 Año: 2021 Publicado en: International Journal of Molecular Sciences 22, 2 (2021), 583 [21 pp] ISSN: 1661-6596 Factor impacto JCR: 6.208 (2021) Categ. JCR: BIOCHEMISTRY & MOLECULAR BIOLOGY rank: 69 / 297 = 0.232 (2021) - Q1 - T1 Categ. JCR: CHEMISTRY, MULTIDISCIPLINARY rank: 50 / 180 = 0.278 (2021) - Q2 - T1 Factor impacto CITESCORE: 6.9 - Computer Science (Q1) - Chemical Engineering (Q1) - Medicine (Q1) - Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology (Q2)