Shi J, Zhao YC, Niu ZF, Fan HJ, Hou SK, Guo XQ, Sang L, Lv Q. Mesenchymal stem cell-derived small extracellular vesicles in the treatment of human diseases: Progress and prospect. World J Stem Cells 2021; 13(1): 49-63 [PMID: 33584979 DOI: 10.4252/wjsc.v13.i1.49]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Qi Lv, MD, PhD, Academic Research, Associate Professor, Institute of Disaster Medicine, Tianjin University, No. 92 Weijin Road, Nankai District, Tianjin 300072, China. lvqi68@163.com
Research Domain of This Article
Cell Biology
Article-Type of This Article
Review
Open-Access Policy of This Article
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/
World J Stem Cells. Jan 26, 2021; 13(1): 49-63 Published online Jan 26, 2021. doi: 10.4252/wjsc.v13.i1.49
Mesenchymal stem cell-derived small extracellular vesicles in the treatment of human diseases: Progress and prospect
Jie Shi, Yu-Chen Zhao, Zhi-Fang Niu, Hao-Jun Fan, Shi-Ke Hou, Xiao-Qin Guo, Lu Sang, Qi Lv
Jie Shi, Yu-Chen Zhao, Hao-Jun Fan, Shi-Ke Hou, Xiao-Qin Guo, Lu Sang, Qi Lv, Institute of Disaster Medicine, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China
Jie Shi, Yu-Chen Zhao, Hao-Jun Fan, Shi-Ke Hou, Xiao-Qin Guo, Lu Sang, Qi Lv, Department of Biomaterials and Regenrative Medicine, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Disaster Medicine Technology, Tianjin 300072, China
Zhi-Fang Niu, General Hospital, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin 300052, China
Author contributions: Shi J, Zhao YC, Niu ZF, and Lv Q wrote the paper; Guo XQ and Sang L collected the data; Hou SK, Fan HJ, and Lv Q revised the paper; Shi J, Zhao YC, and Niu ZF contribute equally to this work.
Supported byNational Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 81971878; Opening Project of Military Logistics, No. BLB19J006; and Tianjin University Independent Innovation Fund, No. 2020XRG-0027, No. 2020XYF-0041, and No. 2020XZY-0086.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors do not have any conflict of interests to declare.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (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/
Corresponding author: Qi Lv, MD, PhD, Academic Research, Associate Professor, Institute of Disaster Medicine, Tianjin University, No. 92 Weijin Road, Nankai District, Tianjin 300072, China. lvqi68@163.com
Received: August 17, 2020 Peer-review started: August 17, 2020 First decision: October 21, 2020 Revised: November 2, 2020 Accepted: November 11, 2020 Article in press: November 11, 2020 Published online: January 26, 2021
Abstract
Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are self-renewing, multipotent cells that could differentiate into multiple tissues. MSC-based therapy has become an attractive and promising strategy for treating human diseases through immune regulation and tissue repair. However, accumulating data have indicated that MSC-based therapeutic effects are mainly attributed to the properties of the MSC-sourced secretome, especially small extracellular vesicles (sEVs). sEVs are signaling vehicles in intercellular communication in normal or pathological conditions. sEVs contain natural contents, such as proteins, mRNA, and microRNAs, and transfer these functional contents to adjacent cells or distant cells through the circulatory system. MSC-sEVs have drawn much attention as attractive agents for treating multiple diseases. The properties of MSC-sEVs include stability in circulation, good biocompatibility, and low toxicity and immunogenicity. Moreover, emerging evidence has shown that MSC-sEVs have equal or even better treatment efficacies than MSCs in many kinds of disease. This review summarizes the current research efforts on the use of MSC-sEVs in the treatment of human diseases and the existing challenges in their application from lab to clinical practice that need to be considered.
Core Tip: Mesenchymal stem cell-derived small extracellular vesicles (MSC-sEVs) have drawn much attention as attractive agents for treating multiple diseases. The properties of MSC-sEVs include low immunogenicity and increased stability in circulation. Moreover, emerging evidence has shown that MSC-sEVs have equal or even better treatment efficacies than MSCs in many kinds of disease.
