The medical tourism industry has adopted the therapeutic use of exosomes derived from stem cells in much the same way as it adopted the use of stem cell therapies. Transplanted stem cells produce benefits via signaling, and most signaling is carried via extracellular vesicles such as exosomes. From a logistics point of view, exosomes are more easily stored, transported, and used, while all of the tools needed to harvest exosomes from stem cell cultures already existed. Meanwhile, the regulated medical industry lags years behind, given the large costs and lengthy development programs required to satisfy regulatory requirements for manufacturing consistency and data on outcomes. Lack of consistency is certainly a long-standing issue in stem cell therapies, and will likely continue to be an issue for exosome therapies. This may simply be an inherent characteristic of material sourced from donors, and will continue to exist until such time as standardized universal cell lines are a going concern.
Stem cell-derived exosomes have broad application prospects in different medical fields, and are increasingly being considered a replacement for mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) therapy. Adipose-derived stem cells (ADSCs) are an efficient and high-quality source of stem cell exosomes because ADSCs can be easily obtained from autologous adipose tissue and there are only minor ethical concerns, also ADSCs shown multipotent differentiation potential, self-renewal potential, low immunogenicity, and high proliferation rate.
Exosomes derived from ADSCs have the function of promoting tissue regeneration through activation or inhibition of multiple signaling pathways (such as Wnt/β-catenin, PI3K/Akt), and immunomodulation, angiogenesis, cell migration, proliferation and differentiation, and tissue remodeling. This review presents the current state of knowledge on ADSCs exosomes and summarizes the use of ADSCs exosomes in stem cell-free therapies for the treatment of diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular, wound healing, neurodegenerative, skeletal, respiratory diseases, and skin aging and other conditions, thus providing novel insights into the clinical applications of MSC-derived exosomes in disease management.
Link: https://doi.org/10.3389/fphar.2025.1637342
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