Extracellular Vesicles Derived From Mesenchymal Stem Cells with Therapeutic Potential: Isolation and Characterization

Abstract

Extracellular vesicles are a heterogeneous population of cell-derived vesicles that are spherical and bounded by phospholipids. In addition, vesicles derived from mesenchymal stem cells carry aspects of their parent cell, such as migration capacity, ability to repair damaged tissues, and immunomodulation capacity. These properties give the vesicles great therapeutic potential to treat relevant chronic diseases. Therefore, the present project aims to isolate and characterize extracellular vesicles from mesenchymal stem cells genetically modified to overexpress Flagellin, preliminarily assessing their potential for activating the immune system. Hence, we isolated extracellular vesicles and characterized them concerning particle size and polydispersion index, morphology, and induction of an essential cytokine for activating the immune system.