Mesenchymal Stem Cell Exosomes as a New Strategy for the Treatment of Diabetes Complications

Abstract

Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a metabolic disease, now prevalent worldwide, which is characterized by a relative or absolute lack of insulin secretion leading to chronically increased blood glucose levels. Diabetic patients are often accompanied by multiple macrovascular complications, such as coronary heart disease, hypertension, macrovascular arteriosclerosis, and microvascular complications. Microvascular complications include diabetic kidney injury, diabetic encephalopathy, and diabetic foot, which reduce the quality of life and survival status of patients. Mesenchymal stem cell exosomes (MSC-Exos) possess repair functions similar to MSCs, low immunogenicity, and ease of storage and transport. MSC-Exos have been proven to possess excellent repair effects in repairing various organ damages. This study reviews the application of MSC-Exos in the treatment of DM and its common complications. MSC-Exos may be used as an effective treatment for DM and its complications.

A Bibliometric Analysis of the Hotspots Concerning Stem Cell Extracellular Vesicles for Diabetes in the Last 5 Years

“…It has the characteristics of slow onset, long duration, and prolonged disease progression, which eventually leads to the loss of self-care ability and even death of patients. At present, clinical control of diabetes is mainly through medication, diet control, and insulin injection therapy, and a combination with symptomatic treatment to control diabetic complications, but the effect is still unsatisfactory ( 2 ). Therefore, there is an urgent need for new therapeutic interventions for DM and its complications.…”

“…EVs are nanosized particles secreted by cells, which contain a variety of biologically active substances, such as lipids, proteins, and RNAs, and play an important role in intercellular communication, cell survival and apoptosis, and the regulation of disease progression. Interestingly, numerous previous studies have shown that SC-EVs, especially exosomes, have repairing effects similar to SCs without the risk of tumor formation and can be stably preserved for transport, which has attracted a great deal of attention from researchers ( 2 , 17 ). To explore the process and trend of SC-EVs for DM, this study conducted a bibliometric analysis of the publication on SC-EVs for DM from 2017 to 2021.…”

“…Notably, DM causes 6.7 million deaths in 2021 and is responsible for at least USD 966 billion in health expenditure. Patients with diabetes in a continuous state of elevated glucose can lead to the development of various complications, such as diabetic wound, nephropathy, and retinopathy ( 2 ). Unfortunately, DM cannot be cured at present, and the primary way to strictly control hyperglycemia is to improve the patient's lifestyle habits, such as diet and exercise, combined with medication to prevent and delay the development of related complications and improve the quality of life.…”

“…Previous studies have found that SC-derived EVs (SC-EVs) have a repair function similar to SCs and no risk of tumor formation ( 10 , 11 ). Notably, numerous studies have shown that SC-EVs (especially exosomes) exert anti-inflammatory, anti-apoptotic, and pro-vascularization mechanisms through their abundant growth factors and therapeutic noncoding RNAs to promote the repair of organs damaged by DM and diabetic complications ( 2 , 12 ).…”

Pharmacological Treatment of Diabetic and Non-Diabetic Patients With Coronary Artery Disease in the Real World of General Practice

“…Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a complex metabolic disease which multiplies the likelihood of developing macrovascular complication, such as coronary artery diseases (CAD) and peripheral arterial disease (PAD) ( Shah et al, 2015 ; Joseph et al, 2020 ; Singh et al, 2021 ; Markousis-Mavrogenis et al, 2022 ), and microvascular complication, mainly nephropathy and retinopathy ( Altavilla et al, 2009 ; Saputro et al, 2021 ; Xiong et al, 2021 ; Markousis-Mavrogenis et al, 2022 ).…”