Abstract
Transplantation of adult stem cells is being used to facilitate repair or regeneration of damaged or diseased tissues. However, in many cases, the therapeutic effects of the injected stem cells are mediated by factors secreted by stem cells and not by differentiation of the transplanted stem cells. Recent reports have identified a class of microvesicles, termed exosomes, released by stem cells that are able to confer therapeutic effects on injured renal and cardiac tissue. In this issue of Stem Cell Research & Therapy, Zhou and colleagues demonstrate the ability of exosomes derived from human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells (hucMSCs), but not non-stem cell-derived exosomes, to improve acute kidney injury induced by cisplatin in rats. The authors demonstrate that hucMSC exosomes can reduce cisplatin-mediated renal oxidative stress and apoptosis in vivo and increase renal epithelial cell proliferation in culture. These results suggest that stem cell-derived exosomes, which are easy to isolate and safer to use than the parental stem cells, could have significant clinical utility.
Highlights
Transplantation of adult stem cells is being used to facilitate repair or regeneration of damaged or diseased tissues
To examine the regenerative effects of Mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) derived from human umbilical cord, Zhou and colleagues used a rat model of acute kidney toxicity induced by treatment with cisplatin
Injection into the renal capsule of exosomes purified from Human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cell (hucMSC), termed hucMSC-ex, resulted in decreases in these indices of acute kidney injury and promoted proliferation of rat renal tubular epithelial cells in culture
Summary
Transplantation of adult stem cells is being used to facilitate repair or regeneration of damaged or diseased tissues. In this issue of Stem Cell Research & Therapy, Zhou and colleagues [1] provide insight into how adult stem cell populations – in particular, mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) derived from human umbilical cord (hucMSCs) – are able to regulate tissue repair and regeneration. Adult stem cells, including MSCs from different sources, confer regenerative effects in animal models of disease and tissue injury and are in phase I
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