Extracellular vesicles (EVs) of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are secreted by live cells and possess the same regenerative potential and immunomodulatory ability as their parental cells. Clinical applications of MSC-EVs could overcome the shortage of MSCs for treatment of cancer and other diseases and impact the field of regenerative medicine from cellular to acellular therapy. For use of MSC-EVs as a clinical agent, various engineered EVs have been manufactured and their therapeutic effects on various diseases demonstrated in preclinical studies and clinical trials. However, MSC-EVs are heterogeneous, and many of their characteristics are still unknown. Many barriers still need to be surmounted before MSC-EVs can be used as biomedical agents.
Keywords: Mesenchymal stem cell (MSC); extracellular vesicle (EV); therapeutic tool.
2019 Annals of Translational Medicine. All rights reserved.