Abstract
Regenerative medicine aims to repair damaged, tissues or organs for the treatment of various diseases, which have been poorly managed with conventional drugs and medical procedures. To date, multimodal regenerative methods include transplant of healthy organs, tissues, or cells, body stimulation to activate a self-healing response in damaged tissues, as well as the combined use of cells and bio-degradable scaffold to obtain functional tissues. Certainly, stem cells are promising tools in regenerative medicine due to their ability to induce de novo tissue formation and/or promote organ repair and regeneration. Currently, several studies have shown that the beneficial stem cell effects, especially for mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) in damaged tissue restore are not dependent on their engraftment and differentiation on the injury site, but rather to their paracrine activity. It is now well known that paracrine action of stem cells is due to their ability to release extracellular vesicles (EVs). EVs play a fundamental role in cell-to-cell communication and are directly involved in tissue regeneration. In the present review, we tried to summarize the molecular mechanisms through which MSCs and iPSCs-derived EVs carry out their therapeutic action and their possible application for the treatment of several diseases.
Highlights
From lower vertebrates, such as zebrafish and amphibians, humans have a limited ability to regenerate damaged tissues or organs, restoring their original state
We tried to summarize the molecular mechanisms through which mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs)-derived extracellular vesicles (EVs) carry out their therapeutic action and their possible application for the treatment of several diseases
Even if stem cell therapy displays great potential in the field of regenerative medicine and MSCs have been already successfully used in several clinical applications [58], their use presents some risks, such as cell rejection, undesired immune response [59], possible contamination with viruses [60], low recovery rate [61,62,63], problematic transport and storage of cells before their use [64,65,66], and adverse effects associated with their harvest in the case of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells
Summary
From lower vertebrates, such as zebrafish and amphibians, humans have a limited ability to regenerate damaged tissues or organs, restoring their original state. More than 15 years ago, the term “regenerative medicine” entered into our scientific lexicon. It is a new interdisciplinary branch of medicine that develops methods to regrow, repair or replace cells, organs or tissues damaged by age, disease, or trauma, as well as to normalize congenital defects. More than half a century ago the first successful organ transplantation was performed in Boston [1], and it has been the cornerstone therapy for replacing diseased or malfunctioning ones. Stem cells have been successfully applied, especially in the hematological field [3,4,5], even if stem cell therapy has not yet reached the level of solid organ regeneration
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