The primary aim of regenerative medicine is to stimulate tissue healing. Despite the great promises raised by the use of stem/progenitor cells for skeletal tissue regeneration, cell tracking analysis has revealed that transplanted cells do not commonly become part of the injured tissue (Pittenger et al., 2019). The role of the stem cell-derived secretome is becoming increasingly intriguing due to its ability to stimulate endogenous regenerative processes. Therefore, the so-called “paracrine hypothesis” has taken hold (Gnecchi et al., 2016). Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are important components of the cell secretome, representing promising tools for the delivery of biologically active molecules which can be used for therapeutic purposes (Alcaraz et al., 2019). EVs are bilayer membrane fragments released by almost any cell type upon activation or death. Two major types of EVs are usually distinguished: exosomes, formed from the endosomal cell compartment, and microvesicles, produced by the direct extrusion from the cell plasma membrane (Doyle and Wang, 2019). Nowadays, the effects specifically exerted by one EV subpopulation over another are still unclear. This is in part due to their overlapping size and variable cargos, which does not allow a precise discrimination between them. EVs contain proteins, lipids, and nucleic acids and have the potential to activate not only complementary, pro-regenerative signaling pathways in the same responder cells, but also to stimulate multiple target cell populations and tissues. This property could make them an efficient therapeutic vehicle for bone and cartilage regenerative medicine. However, there are many concerns that should be addressed, such as the development of strategies to obtain sufficient amounts of EVs, the identification and characterization of the optimal donor cell source, the necessity to develop ideal scaffolds to be used as depots for controlled release of EVs, as well as the need to better understand the mechanisms underlying bone/cartilage formation after EV treatment.
Editorial: Bone and Cartilage Regeneration With Extracellular Vesicles
Roberta Tasso;
2021-01-01
Abstract
The primary aim of regenerative medicine is to stimulate tissue healing. Despite the great promises raised by the use of stem/progenitor cells for skeletal tissue regeneration, cell tracking analysis has revealed that transplanted cells do not commonly become part of the injured tissue (Pittenger et al., 2019). The role of the stem cell-derived secretome is becoming increasingly intriguing due to its ability to stimulate endogenous regenerative processes. Therefore, the so-called “paracrine hypothesis” has taken hold (Gnecchi et al., 2016). Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are important components of the cell secretome, representing promising tools for the delivery of biologically active molecules which can be used for therapeutic purposes (Alcaraz et al., 2019). EVs are bilayer membrane fragments released by almost any cell type upon activation or death. Two major types of EVs are usually distinguished: exosomes, formed from the endosomal cell compartment, and microvesicles, produced by the direct extrusion from the cell plasma membrane (Doyle and Wang, 2019). Nowadays, the effects specifically exerted by one EV subpopulation over another are still unclear. This is in part due to their overlapping size and variable cargos, which does not allow a precise discrimination between them. EVs contain proteins, lipids, and nucleic acids and have the potential to activate not only complementary, pro-regenerative signaling pathways in the same responder cells, but also to stimulate multiple target cell populations and tissues. This property could make them an efficient therapeutic vehicle for bone and cartilage regenerative medicine. However, there are many concerns that should be addressed, such as the development of strategies to obtain sufficient amounts of EVs, the identification and characterization of the optimal donor cell source, the necessity to develop ideal scaffolds to be used as depots for controlled release of EVs, as well as the need to better understand the mechanisms underlying bone/cartilage formation after EV treatment.
I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
