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Review
. 2022 Jan 6;23(2):590.
doi: 10.3390/ijms23020590.

Small Extracellular Vesicles from Human Amniotic Fluid Samples as Promising Theranostics

Ambra Costa  1 , Rodolfo Quarto  1   2 , Sveva Bollini  1
Affiliations
Review

Small Extracellular Vesicles from Human Amniotic Fluid Samples as Promising Theranostics

Ambra Costa et al. Int J Mol Sci. .

Abstract

Since the first evidence that stem cells can provide pro-resolving effects via paracrine secretion of soluble factors, growing interest has been addressed to define the most ideal cell source for clinical translation. Leftover or clinical waste samples of human amniotic fluid obtained following prenatal screening, clinical intervention, or during scheduled caesarean section (C-section) delivery at term have been recently considered an appealing source of mesenchymal progenitors with peculiar regenerative capacity. Human amniotic fluid stem cells (hAFSC) have been demonstrated to support tissue recovery in several preclinical models of disease by exerting paracrine proliferative, anti-inflammatory and regenerative influence. Small extracellular vesicles (EVs) concentrated from the hAFSC secretome (the total soluble trophic factors secreted in the cell-conditioned medium, hAFSC-CM) recapitulate most of the beneficial cell effects. Independent studies in preclinical models of either adult disorders or severe diseases in newborns have suggested a regenerative role of hAFSC-EVs. EVs can be eventually concentrated from amniotic fluid (hAF) to offer useful prenatal information, as recently suggested. In this review, we focus on the most significant aspects of EVs obtained from either hAFSC and hAF and consider the current challenges for their clinical translation, including isolation, characterization and quantification methods.

Keywords: amniotic fluid; exosomes; extracellular vesicles; regenerative medicine; stem cells.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Schematic of the therapeutic and diagnostic potential of hAFSC-EVs and hAF-EVs for future paracrine therapy and personalised medicine. C-section: caesarean-section; hAF: human amniotic fluid; hAF-EVs: human amniotic fluid-derived extracellular vesicles; hAFSC: human amniotic fluid-derived stem cells; hAF-MSC: human amniotic fluid-derived mesenchymal stromal cells; hAFS-EVs: human amniotic fluid stem cell-extracellular vesicles. Schematic has been produced adapting images from Smart—Servier Medical Art (https://smart.servier.com; accessed on 14 December 2021).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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