Mesenchymal Stem Cell-Derived Extracellular Vesicles for Regenerative Applications and Radiotherapy

Abstract

Tissue repair is an extremely crucial part of clinical treatment. During the course of disease treatment, surgery, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy cause tissue damage. On the other hand, Normal tissue from accidental or therapeutic exposure to high-dose radiation can cause severe tissue damage. There is an urgent need for developing medical countermeasures against radiation injury for tissue repair. Tissue repair involves the regeneration, proliferation, differentiation, and migration of tissue cells; imbalance of local tissue homeostasis, progressive chronic inflammation; decreased cell activity and stem cell function; and wound healing. Although many clinical treatments are currently available for tissue repair, they are expensive. The long recovery time and some unavoidable complications such as cell damage and the inflammatory reaction caused by radiotherapy have led to unsatisfactory results. Extracellular vesicles (EVs) derived from mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have similar tissue repair functions as MSCs. In tissue damage, EVs can be used as an alternative to stem cell therapy, thereby avoiding related complications such as immunological rejection. EVs play a major role in regulating tissue damage, anti-inflammation, pro-proliferation, and immune response, thus providing a diversified and efficient solution for the repair of disease- and radiotherapy-induced tissue damage. This article reviews the research progress of mesenchymal stem cell-derived EVs in promoting the repair of tissue including heart, lung, liver, intestine, skin, blood system, central nervous system, and tissue damage caused by radiotherapy, thereby aiming to offer new directions and ideas for the radiotherapy and regenerative applications.

Keywords: extracellular vesicles; mesenchymal stem cells; radiation damage; regenerative repair.

Graphical Abstract

Figure 1.

Functions of mesenchymal stem cell-derived extracellular vesicles (MSC-EVs). (A) Extracellular vesicles are formed in a budding fashion by indented mesenchymal stem cell membranes. (B) EVs contain biologically active molecules including nucleic acids, proteins, lipids or membrane receptors that bind to target cells and play a role in radiation injury and regeneration and repair of heart, lung, liver, intestine, skin, blood system, central nervous system in the human body. Such as promote proliferation, suppress inflammation, attenuate apoptosis and information transfer.