Prospective application of exosomes derived from adipose-derived stem cells in skin wound healing: A review

Wound healing has always been an intractable medical problem for both clinicians and researchers and a burden for patients both physically and financially. Poor wound healing at the injury site, especially in an exposed site, is associated with an unappealing esthetic appearance in patients and also results in a bad skin barrier, tissue infection and necrosis, loss of main function in extreme cases and other serious local and systemic consequences. There is a crucial and urgent need for newer, more efficacious methods for enhancing the healing process to achieve optimal outcomes morphologically and functionally. Recent advances have focused on developing therapies that promote tissue regeneration through positively activating the mechanism of tissue repair. Given the increasing high-quality studies concerning exosomes derived from adipose-derived stem cells (ADSCs-Exos), their potential use in accelerating or supporting the wound healing process has gained increasing attention in recent years.

In this review, we present an overview of the recent advances in the field of ADSCs-Exos and investigate their benefit in wound healing for skin regeneration with the expectation of providing a perspective on how to best utilize this powerful cell-free therapy in the future.

A retrospective review of the published data was conducted.

Most studies have shown the possible roles of ASCs-derived exosomes (ADSCs-Exos) in cutaneous wound healing through regulation of the inflammatory response and promotion of cell proliferation, migration, differentiation, angiogenesis and matrix reconstruction to provide a new perspective strategy for the use of ASCs-Exos in skin wound healing.

ADSCs-Exos are likely to achieve the best functionally and cosmetic skin wound healing while avoiding undesirable consequences. ADSCs-Exos represent a novel therapeutic tool in soft tissue repair; however, further randomized, double-blind, comparative clinical trials must be performed to determine the specific mechanisms, safety and other relevant cosmetic concerns.