Heal Yourself: How Exosome Therapy Can Repair Age-Damaged Skin – Market Research Finance

A team of researchers from North Carolina State University has shown that exosomes that are harvested from the human skin are more effective at repairing sun-damage skin cells in mice than commonly-used retinol or stem cell-based treatments. Also, the nanometer-sized exosomes can be delivered to the target cells via needle-free injections.

Exosomes are tiny sacs that are excreted and taken up by cells. These tiny sacs can transfer DNA, RNA or proteins from one cell to another, affecting the functioning of the recipient cell. In the regenerative medicine field, exosomes are being tested as carriers of stem cell-based treatments for diseases ranging from heart diseases to respiratory disorders.

Think of an exosome as an envelope with instructions insidelike one cell mailing a letter to another cell and telling it what to do, explains Ke Cheng, professor of molecular biomedical sciences at NC State, professor in the NC State/UNC-Chapel Hill Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering and corresponding author of a paper describing the work. In this case, the envelope contains microRNA, non-coding RNA that instructs the recipient cell to produce more collagen.

To test whether exosomes could be effective in skin repair, the researchers first grew and harvested exosomes from skin cells. The team used commercially available human dermal fibroblast cells, expanding them in a suspension culture that allowed the cells to stick to each other, forming spheroids. These spheroids then excrete exosomes into the media.

3-D exosome spheroids.

The team tested the three-dimensional spheroid-grown exosomes against three treatments, retinoid cream, 2-D grown exosomes and bone marrow-derived from stem cell exosomes, a popular stem cell-based treatment. The team compared the improvements in skin thickness and collagen production after the treatment. They found that the skin thickness in 3-D exosome treated mice was 20 percent better than the other models. Besides, they also found 30 percent more collagen production in skin treated with 3-D exosomes than in stem cells treated skin, which was the second most effective treatment.

The researchers claim that the study shows the potential for 3-D exosomes to be used in anti-aging skin treatments. There are two major benefits to exosome treatments, first, donor skin cells can be used from anyone to grow and harvest the exosomes. Secondly, the treatment can be administered without using needles, because the exosomes are small enough to be able to penetrate the skin via pressure or jet injection methods.

The team hopes to create donor exosomes treatments that can be administered by users themselves. They believe that work is an important step towards developing treatments and human trials in the prevention of cutaneous aging.

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Heal Yourself: How Exosome Therapy Can Repair Age-Damaged Skin - Market Research Finance