Mesenchymal stem cells’ “garbage bags” at work: Treating radial nerve injury with mesenchymal stem cell-derived exosomes

Abstract

Unlike central nervous system injuries, peripheral nerve injuries (PNIs) are often characterized by more or less successful axonal regeneration. However, structural and functional recovery is a senile process involving multifaceted cellular and molecular processes. The contemporary treatment options are limited, with surgical intervention as the gold-standard method; however, each treatment option has its associated limitations, especially when the injury is severe with a large gap. Recent advancements in cell-based therapy and cell-free therapy approaches using stem cell-derived soluble and insoluble components of the cell secretome are fast-emerging therapeutic approaches to treating acute and chronic PNI. The recent pilot study is a leap forward in the field, which is expected to pave the way for more enormous, systematic, and well-designed clinical trials to assess the therapeutic efficacy of mesenchymal stem cell-derived exosomes as a bio-drug either alone or as part of a combinatorial approach, in an attempt synergize the best of novel treatment approaches to address the complexity of the neural repair and regeneration.

Priming mesenchymal stem cells to develop “super stem cells”

“…The reprogrammed cells are considered surrogate embryonic stem cells and are fast-emerging for theragnostic applications and disease modeling. Another important application of genetic modulation of MSCs is loading specific cargo of the transgene expression product in their derivate exosomes[ 85 ]. It has been observed that the exosomes released from the genetically modulated cells are rich in the gene expression product.…”