Evaluation of Selected Advanced Techniques Used for Management of Skin Wounds in Dogs

Abstract

Exosomes are small extracellular vesicles secreted by most cell types and play an important role in cell-cell communication. It was recently discovered that the effect of MSCs depend mainly on its exosomal secretion beside its differentiation capacity. However, recent studies suggested that the therapeutic use of MSCs has several drawbacks, such as poor engraftment efficiency, potential tumor formation, undesired immune responses, non-specific differentiation, short half-life, and the difficulty of quality control before administration. Contrarily, growing evidences suggest that exosomes derived from stem cells could be a promising alternative as they would avoid most of the problems associated with cell-based therapy while recapitulating the therapeutic efficacy of stem cells. For example, exosomes have no risk of tumor formation since they cannot replicate. They also can be sterilized by filtration and have a longer shelf-life than cells themselves. Being much smaller than stem cells, exosomes easily circulate through the body and reach sites of injury. In addition, long-term repetitive administration of exosomes does not elicit toxicity.