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Review
. 2024 Mar 30:52:101399.
doi: 10.1016/j.ijcha.2024.101399. eCollection 2024 Jun.

Stem cells-derived exosomes as cardiac regenerative agents

Raheleh Farahzadi  1   2 , Ezzatollah Fathi  3 , Behnaz Valipour  4   5 , Saba Ghaffary  1
Affiliations
Review

Stem cells-derived exosomes as cardiac regenerative agents

Raheleh Farahzadi et al. Int J Cardiol Heart Vasc. .

Abstract

Heart failure is a root cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Due to the limited regenerative capacity of the heart following myocardial injury, stem cell-based therapies have been considered a hopeful approach for improving cardiac regeneration. In recent years, different kinds of cell products have been investigated regarding their potential to treat patients with heart failure. Despite special attention to cell therapy and its products, therapeutic efficacy has been disappointing, and clinical application is not affordable. In the past few years, a subset of small extracellular vehicles (EVs), commonly known as "exosomes," was reported to grant regenerative and cardioprotective signals at a value similar to their donor cells. The conceptual advantage is that they may be ideally used without evoking a relevant recipient immune response or other adverse effects associated with viable cells. The evidence related to their beneficial effects in animal models of heart failure is rapidly growing. However, there is remarkable heterogeneity regarding source cells, isolation process, effective dosage, and delivery mode. This brief review will focus on the latest research and debates on regenerative potential and cardiac repair of exosomes from different sources, such as cardiac/non-cardiac stem, somatic cells, and progenitor cells. Overall, the current state of research on exosomes as an experimental therapy for heart diseases will be discussed.

Keywords: Cardiac regeneration; Exosomes; Extracellular vehicles (EVs); miRNA.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
A scheme depicting the discussed biological sources of exosomes for cardiac repair, along with different strategies for donor cell phenotype modification (This figure adapted from Fig. 1 of reference number 17) .
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Possible mechanism of exosome treatment of AM (This figure adapted from figure 17 of reference number 37) .
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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