title: Extracellular vesicles: potential roles in regenerative medicine.
abstract: Extracellular vesicles (EV) consist of exosomes, which are released upon fusion of the multivesicular body with the cell membrane, and microvesicles, which are released directly from the cell membrane. EV can mediate cell-cell communication and are involved in many processes, including immune signaling, angiogenesis, stress response, senescence, proliferation, and cell differentiation. The vast amount of processes that EV are involved in and the versatility of manner in which they can influence the behavior of recipient cells make EV an interesting source for both therapeutic and diagnostic applications. Successes in the fields of tumor biology and immunology sparked the exploration of the potential of EV in the field of regenerative medicine. Indeed, EV are involved in restoring tissue and organ damage, and may partially explain the paracrine effects observed in stem cell-based therapeutic approaches. The function and content of EV may also harbor information that can be used in tissue engineering, in which paracrine signaling is employed to modulate cell recruitment, differentiation, and proliferation. In this review, we discuss the function and role of EV in regenerative medicine and elaborate on potential applications in tissue engineering.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nephrology and Hypertension, University Medical Center Utrecht , Utrecht , Netherlands.
authors.forename: Olivier G
authors.initials: OG
authors.lastname: De Jong
authors.affiliation: Department of Nephrology and Hypertension, University Medical Center Utrecht , Utrecht , Netherlands ; Department of Biomedical Engineering, Eindhoven University of Technology , Eindhoven , Netherlands.
authors.forename: Bas W M
authors.initials: BW
authors.lastname: Van Balkom
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Chemistry and Hematology, University Medical Center Utrecht , Utrecht , Netherlands.
authors.forename: Raymond M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Schiffelers
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Eindhoven University of Technology , Eindhoven , Netherlands.
authors.forename: Carlijn V C
authors.initials: CV
authors.lastname: Bouten
authors.affiliation: Department of Nephrology and Hypertension, University Medical Center Utrecht , Utrecht , Netherlands.
authors.forename: Marianne C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Verhaar
keywords: exosomes; extracellular vesicles; microvesicles; regenerative medicine; tissue engineering