Editorial
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2018. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Oct 28, 2018; 24(40): 4519-4526
Published online Oct 28, 2018. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v24.i40.4519
Extracellular vesicles in liver disease and beyond
Laura Morán, Francisco Javier Cubero
Laura Morán, Francisco Javier Cubero, Department of Immunology, Ophthalmology and ORL, Complutense University School of Medicine, Madrid 28040, Spain
Francisco Javier Cubero, 12 de Octubre Health Research Institute (imas12), Madrid 28041, Spain
Author contributions: Morán L and Cubero FJ outlined the editorial, wrote the manuscript and designed the figures.
Supported by the MINECO Retos, No. SAF2016-78711; the EXOHEP-CM, No. S2017/BMD-3727; the AMMF Cholangiocarcinoma Charity, No. 2018/117; the COST Action, No. CA17112; Ramón y Cajal Researcher Grant, No. RYC-2014-15242; and Gilead Liver Research Scholar, 2018.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Francisco Javier Cubero, BSc, MSc, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Immunology, Ophthalmology and ORL, Complutense University School of Medicine, c/Doctor Severo Ochoa, 9, Madrid 28040, Spain. fcubero@ucm.es
Telephone: +34-91-3941385 Fax: +34-91-3941641
Received: July 26, 2018
Peer-review started: July 26, 2018
First decision: August 27, 2018
Revised: September 2, 2018
Accepted: October 5, 2018
Article in press: October 5, 2018
Published online: October 28, 2018
Abstract

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are membrane-derived vesicles which can be released by different cell types, including hepatocytes, hepatic stellate cells and immune cells in normal and pathological conditions. EVs carry lipids, proteins, coding and non-coding RNAs and mitochondrial DNA causing modifications on the recipient cells. These vesicles are considered potential biomarkers and therapeutic agents for human diagnostic and prognostic due to their function as intercellular mediators of cell-cell communication within the liver and between other organs. However, the development and optimization of methods for EVs isolation is required to characterize their biological functions as well as their potential as a treatment option in the clinic. Nevertheless, many questions remain unanswered related to the function of EVs under physiological and pathological conditions. In the current editorial, the results obtained in different studies that investigated the role of intrahepatic EVs during liver diseases, including drug-induced liver injury, non-alcoholic fatty liver, non-alcoholic steatohepatitis, alcoholic liver disease and hepatocellular carcinoma and extrahepatic EVs in remote organs during pathological events such as pulmonary disease, cardiovascular diseases, neurodegenerative disorders e.g., Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and multiple sclerosis as well as in immunopathological processes, are discussed. Although much light needs to be shed on the mechanisms of EVs, these membrane-derived vesicles represent both a novel promising diagnostic, and a therapeutic tool for clinical use that we emphasize in the current editorial.

Keywords: Extracellular vesicles, MicroRNA, Hepatocytes, Drug-induced liver injury, Alcoholic liver disease, Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, Non-alcoholic steatohepatitis, Hepatocellular carcinoma

Core tip: It has become increasingly clear that extracellular vesicles (EVs) are particularly important intercellular messenger vesicles during pathophysiological processes. EVs can provide more information about the processes that occur in remote organs during the development of diseases contributing to improving our tools for diagnosis, prognosis and therapy.