Science Journal: noninvasive detection of stem cell transplantation effectiveness by exosomes

May 29, 2019 / bioin / - in human clinical trials, stem cell-based therapies to enhance myocardial function and treat other diseases began to show promise However, in addition to the observation of clinical results, there is a lack of a repeatable, time sensitive, non-invasive tool to evaluate the effectiveness of target organ transplantation cells, which hinders the progress in the field of stem cells Source: researchers at the University of Maryland, University of Pennsylvania and Emory University believe that blood tests can be used to track the efficacy of transplanted stem cells Their goal is to monitor exosomes, the tiny cell components secreted from transplanted stem cells into the recipient's blood After transplanting two types of human cardiac stem cells and monitoring their exocrine circulation, they tested their theory in a rodent model of a heart attack or myocardial infarction The researchers found that circulatory exosomes deliver cell components to target cardiomyocytes, leading to cardiac repair The results were published in the journal Science Translational Medicine "Exosomes contain signals from the cells from which they are derived - proteins, nucleic acids, and microRNAs - that can affect the receptor cells, remodel or regenerate the target organs we need "The second author of the study, Dr sunjay kaushal, Professor of surgery at umsom, director of pediatric cardiology at the University of Maryland children's Hospital, said "We now have a tool to determine whether stem cell therapy is effective for a single patient, not just for the heart, but for any stem cell therapy "Using blood tests, the researchers monitored human cardiomyocyte derived cells (CDCs) and cardiac progenitor cells (CPCs) transplanted to the rat heart after myocardial infarction, and compared the concentrations of plasma exosomes 7 days after transplantation After purification of the CDC / CPC derived exosomes, the researchers found that the exosomes contained miRNAs related to myocardial recovery In addition, they found that the amount of CPCs and CDCs produced by culture was different from the amount of exosomes produced by living transplanted cells "Our research should be considered as the first step to understand the function of stem cells, but it is important that the cells we recognize to respond change their gene expression, behavior and secretion," said sudhish Sharma, assistant professor of surgery at umsom, MD, and co lead author of umsom "By using these biomarkers, we can understand the mechanism and extent of recovery "Reference materials: P Saha El Al.," circulating exosomes derived from translated producer cells aid the functional recovery of ischemical mycordium, "Science Translational Medicine (2019) Doi: 10.1126/scitranslmed.aau1168