Mesenchymal Stem Cell-Derived Extracellular Vesicle: A Promising Alternative Therapy for Osteoporosis

Abstract

Osteoporosis is the chronic metabolic bone disease caused by the disturbance of bone remodeling due to the imbalance of osteogenesis and osteoclastogenesis. A large population suffers from osteoporosis, and most of them are postmenopausal women or older people. To date, bisphosphonates are the main therapeutic agents in the treatment of osteoporosis. However, limited therapeutic effects with diverse side effects caused by bisphosphonates hindered the therapeutic applications and decreased the quality of life. Therefore, an alternative therapy for osteoporosis is still needed. Stem cells, especially mesenchymal stem cells, have been shown as a promising medication for numerous human diseases including many refractory diseases. Recently, researchers found that the extracellular vesicles derived from these stem cells possessed the similar therapeutic potential to that of parental cells. To date, a number of studies demonstrated the therapeutic applications of exogenous MSC-EVs for the treatment of osteoporosis. In this article, we reviewed the basic back ground of EVs, the cargo and therapeutic potential of MSC-EVs, and strategies of engineering of MSC-EVs for osteoporosis treatment.

Keywords: EV cargo; engineering EV; extracellular vesicles; mesenchymal stem cells; osteoporosis; osteoporosis medications.

Figure 1

Application of exogenous MSC-EVs on the treatment of bone diseases. (A) MSCs and their secreted EVs have been used to successfully treat the femur head necrosis, OA, RA, osteosarcoma, and osteoporosis. (B) The retardation of osteoporosis by exogenous MSC-EVs might attribute to carried cargo (protein and non-coding RNA), or exerted by engineering MSC-EVs.