Chang J, Yin XM, Zhang M, Liu JW, Zhao L. Bridging bioengineering and nanotechnology: Bone marrow derived mesenchymal stem cell-exosome solutions for peripheral nerve injury. World J Stem Cells 2025; 17(1): 101161 [PMID: PMC11752453 DOI: 10.4252/wjsc.v17.i1.101161]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Lan Zhao, MD, PhD, Professor, First Teaching Hospital of Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, No. 88 Changling Road, Xiqing District, Tianjin 300381, China. lanzhao69@163.com
Research Domain of This Article
Cell & Tissue Engineering
Article-Type of This Article
Letter to the Editor
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Stem Cells. Jan 26, 2025; 17(1): 101161 Published online Jan 26, 2025. doi: 10.4252/wjsc.v17.i1.101161
Bridging bioengineering and nanotechnology: Bone marrow derived mesenchymal stem cell-exosome solutions for peripheral nerve injury
Jun Chang, Xiu-Mei Yin, Man Zhang, Jian-Wei Liu, Lan Zhao
Jun Chang, Xiu-Mei Yin, Lan Zhao, First Teaching Hospital of Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tianjin 300381, China
Jun Chang, Xiu-Mei Yin, Lan Zhao, National Clinical Research Center for Chinese Medicine Acupuncture and Moxibustion, Tianjin 300381, China
Man Zhang, School of Acupuncture & Moxibustion and Tuina, Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tianjin 301617, China
Jian-Wei Liu, School of Integrative Medicine, Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tianjin 301617, China
Author contributions: Chang J and Yin XM wrote the letter; Zhang M and Liu JW revised the letter; Zhao L revised the letter and approved the final version of the manuscript.
Supported by the Tianjin Graduate Research Innovation Project & TUTCM Graduate Research Innovation Project, No. YJSKC-20231012.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Lan Zhao, MD, PhD, Professor, First Teaching Hospital of Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, No. 88 Changling Road, Xiqing District, Tianjin 300381, China. lanzhao69@163.com
Received: September 5, 2024 Revised: October 22, 2024 Accepted: December 13, 2024 Published online: January 26, 2025 Processing time: 136 Days and 13.9 Hours
Abstract
Peripheral nerve injury (PNI) is a common disease that is difficult to nerve regeneration with current therapies. Fortunately, Zou et al demonstrated the role and mechanism of bone marrow derived mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) in promoting nerve regeneration, revealing broad prospects for BMSCs transplantation in alleviating PNI. We confirmed the fact that BMSCs significantly alleviate PNI, but there are shortcomings such as low cell survival rate and immune rejection, which limit the wide application of BMSCs. BMSCs-derived exosomes (Exos) are considered as a promising cell-free nanomedicine for PNI, avoiding the ethical issues of BMSCs. Exos in combination with bioengineering therapeutics (including extracellular matrix, hydrogel) brings new hope for PNI, provides a favorable microenvironment for neurological restoration and a therapeutic strategy with a favorable safety profile, significantly increases expression of neurotrophic factors, promotes axonal and myelin regeneration, and demonstrates a strong potential to enhance neurogenesis. Therefore, engineered Exos exhibit better properties, such as stronger targeting and more beneficial components. This article briefly describes the role of nanotechnology and bioengineering therapies for BMSCs in PNI, proposes clinical application prospects and challenges of nanotechnology and bioengineering BMSCs-derived Exos in PNI to improve the efficacy of BMSCs in the treatment of PNI.
Core Tip: Peripheral nerve injury is a common neurosurgical disease affecting all systems of the body with a high incidence and disability rate, but there is a lack of effective treatment strategies. It is particularly important to explore effective therapeutic strategies to improve the repair of peripheral nerves after injury. This article affirms the findings of “Bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells in treatment of peripheral nerve injury” and provides a brief overview of the application prospects and challenges of nanotechnology and bioengineering bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells in peripheral nerve injury.
