Acute anaphylaxis study of mesenchymal stem cell-derived exosomes in Guinea pigs

Abstract

Background & Aim Mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) therapy in global regenerative medicine market has grown rapidly in the last decade. However, there are still limitations of MSC-based therapy, such as limited survival of stem cells and delivery approach to clinics. Recently, exosomes of MSC are proposed to be potential alternative to MSC therapy. MSC-derived exosomes are known to have similar therapeutic effects as its parental cells, while equipped with convenience of long term storage and easier laboratory manipulation. On the other hand, toxicological assessments of MSC-derived exosomes remain scarce. Methods, Results & Conclusion Here, we used mesenchymal stem cell derived exosomes of defined quality to assess acute anaphylactic response in guinea pigs. For sensitization, guinea pigs were subcutaneously administered with low dosage (1 × 108 particles/head) or high dosage (1 × 109 particles/head) of MSC-derived exosome for thrice in the period of two weeks. Two weeks after the last exosome administration, animals were challenged by intravenous injection of the exosomes with high dosage (1 × 109 particles/head) and then their anaphylactic responses were scored. We found that compared to ovalbumin injected positive control group, both low and high dosage injected experimental groups showed mild symptoms of anaphylactic response. We propose that MSC-derived exosomes has little antigenicity at least in guinea pig, which are considered to be biologically safe in humans.