Kenneth W. Witwer, Bas W.M. Van Balkom, Stefania Bruno, Andre Choo, Massimo Dominici, Mario Gimona, Andrew F. Hill, Dominique De Kleijn, Mickey Koh, Ruenn Chai Lai, S. Alex Mitsialis, Luis A. Ortiz, Eva Rohde, Takashi Asada, Wei Seong Toh, Daniel J. Weiss, Lei Zheng, Bernd Giebel & Sai Kiang Lim (2019) Defining mesenchymal stromal cell (MSC)-derived small extracellular vesicles for therapeutic applications, Journal of Extracellular Vesicles, 8:1, 1609206, DOI: 10.1080/20013078.2019.1609206
Abstract:
Small extracellular vesicles (sEVs) from mesenchymal stromal/stem cells (MSCs) are transiting rapidly towards clinical applications. However, discrepancies and controversies about the biology, functions, and potency of MSC-sEVs have arisen due to several factors: the diversity of MSCs and their preparation; various methods of sEV production and separation; a lack of standardized quality assurance assays; and limited reproducibility of in vitro and in vivo functional assays. To address these issues, members of four societies (SOCRATES, ISEV, ISCT and ISBT) propose specific harmonization criteria for MSC-sEVs to facilitate data sharing and comparison, which should help to advance the field towards clinical applications. Specifically, MSC-sEVs should be defined by quantifiable metrics to identify the cellular origin of the sEVs in a preparation, presence of lipid-membrane vesicles, and the degree of physical and biochemical integrity of the vesicles. For practical purposes, new MSC-sEV preparations might also be measured against a well-characterized MSC-sEV biological reference. The ultimate goal of developing these metrics is to map aspects of MSC-sEV biology and therapeutic potency onto quantifiable features of each preparation.
License type:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Funding Info:
Funding was provided by The Silent Foundation, Singapore. SKL was funded by ICP I1801E0019 by ASTAR.