Open Access

REVIEW

Mesenchymal stem cell-derived exosomes as new remedy for the treatment of inflammatory eye diseases

CARL RANDALL HARRELL^1,#, ANA VOLAREVIC^2,#,*, DRAGICA PAVLOVIC³, VALENTIN DJONOV⁴, VLADISLAV VOLAREVIC^4,5,*
1 Regenerative Processing Plant, Palm Harbor, Florida, USA
2 Department of Cognitive Psychology, Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Kragujevac, Kragujevac, Serbia
3 Institute of Anatomy, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
4 Department of Genetics, Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Kragujevac, Kragujevac, Serbia
5 Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Kragujevac, Kragujevac, Serbia
* Corresponding Authors: ANA VOLAREVIC. Email: ; VLADISLAV VOLAREVIC. Email:
(This article belongs to this Special Issue: Mesenchymal Stem Cells, Secretome and Biomaterials: Regenerative Medicine Application)

BIOCELL 2022, 46(10), 2195-2200. https://doi.org/10.32604/biocell.2022.020175

Received 09 November 2021; Accepted 04 March 2022; Issue published 13 June 2022

Abstract

Detrimental immune response has a crucially important role in the development and progression of inflammatory eye diseases. Inflammatory mediators and proteolytic enzymes released by activated immune cells induce serious injury of corneal epithelial cells and retinal ganglion cell which may result in the vision loss. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are regulatory cells which produce various immunosuppressive factors that modulate phenotype and function of inflammatory immune cells. However, several safety issues, including undesired differentiation and emboli formation, limit clinical use of MSCs. MSC-derived exosomes (MSC-Exos) are nano-sized extracellular vesicles which contain all MSC-derived immunoregulatory factors. Intraocular administration of MSC-Exos efficiently attenuated eye inflammation and significantly improved visual acuity in experimental animals without causing any severe side effects. As cell-free product, MSC-Exos addressed all safety issues related to the transplantation of MSCs. Therefore, MSC-Exos could be considered as potentially new remedy for the treatment of inflammatory eye diseases which efficacy should be explored in up-coming clinical trials.

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Keywords

Mesenchymal stem cells; Exosomes; Inflammation; Eye; Therapy

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