Abstract
Intervertebral disc degeneration (IVDD) is the leading cause of low back pain related to degradation of cartilaginous tissues, mainly resulting from oxidative stress, cell apoptosis, and extracellular matrix degradation. Extracellular vesicles (EVs) exist in all bodily fluids and can be produced by all types of cells. Stem cell-derived EVs (SC-EVs), which are the main paracrine components of stem cells, have gained significant attention in the field of regenerative medicine. Over the past years, accumulating evidence indicates the therapeutic and diagnostic potentials of EVs in IVDD. The main mechanisms involve the induction of regenerative phenotypes, apoptosis alleviation, and immune modulation. In addition, the efficiency of SC-EVs can be enhanced by choosing appropriate donor cells and cell phenotypes, optimizing cell culture conditions, or engineering EVs to deliver drugs and targeting molecules. Given the importance and novelty of SC-EVs, we give an overview of SC-EVs and discuss the roles of SC-EVs in IVDD.
Highlights
Intervertebral disc degeneration (IVDD) is an age-related disease associated with various factors
minimal information for studies of extracellular vesicles (MISEV) 2018 highlights three categories of markers, which investigated necessarily in all bulk Extracellular vesicles (EVs) preparations to show the presence of EVs and evaluate their purity from common contaminants (Théry et al, 2018) (Figure 1)
Stem cell-derived EVs (SC-EVs) represent a more accessible and cell-free therapy, some challenges should be taken into consideration before translation to clinical applications such as production, safety, long-term durability, and regulation (Bari et al, 2018; Xing et al, 2021)
Summary
Intervertebral disc degeneration (IVDD) is an age-related disease associated with various factors. MISEV 2018 highlights three categories of markers (transmembrane or GPI-anchored proteins associated with the plasma membrane and/or endosomes; cytosolic proteins recovered in EVs; major components of non-EV co-isolated structures), which investigated necessarily in all bulk EV preparations to show the presence of EVs and evaluate their purity from common contaminants (Théry et al, 2018) (Figure 1). As mentioned above, TEM with immuno-EM can be applied to aid in determining differences in topology among different EVs. In the included studies, the most commonly used methods are TEM and NTA combined with western blotting. The cargo carried by EVs may mirror the parental cell physiological or pathological conditions, involving different diseases as well as stages of a disease Such intrinsic properties of EVs have facilitated their potential utility in therapy and diagnosis for many diseases, including degenerative joint diseases. Using a 3D in vitro model, Hingert et al explored the effects of SC-EVs on Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology | www.frontiersin.org
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