Exosomes for Wound Healing

Greg Chernoff BSC, MD, FRCSC

The Utilization of Exosomes for Accelerating Wound Healing

KEY POINTS:

1. Exosomes are 40-100nm lipid membrane paracrine messenger packets, commercially available from placental tissue, whose mesenchymal stem cells secrete a cargo rich in growth and immunomodulatory substances.

2. Exosomes contain messengerRNA, microRNA, and transmembrane proteins from their parent cells, which are important in regulating uptake by other cells.

3. With proper homing events, exosomes can illicit regenerative, anti-inflammatory, immunomodulatory, and pain mitigating events.

4. The wound healing pathway can be accelerated by shortening the inflammatory stage with the deployment of exosomes. This benefits patients undergoing surgery, CO2 laser therapy (traditional or fractionated), and chronic wounds such as diabetic ulcers.

STUDY DESIGN:

Twenty patients undergoing aesthetic procedures including Rhytidectomy, Blepharoplasty ,Full Face CO2 Laser , Fractionated CO2 laser, as well as patients with diabetic ulcers were treated with locally injected exosomes. Split face treatments were performed in some cases with saline placebo injected on the contralateral side. Patients were followed for one year.