Unless you live in a box with no exposure to the internet, television or any media at all you undoubtedly have heard of Stem Cells in the last decade. If you are paying attention to all the reported medical miracles, research advances, setbacks, studies and predictions as to how Stems Cells may revolutionize the way we look at medicine, attack disease, prevent disease, and regenerate our bodies, you may be noticing there is a bunch of hype about Exosomes.
There are all sorts of different types of Stem Cells and that is not the purpose of this article to focus on Stem Cells or the basic science of the different types of the Stem Cells that may be useful for attacking disease or regenerative purposes. For a further look at “What is a Stem Cell” a great article was written by Ian White a doctor who obtained his doctorate from the prestigious Ansary Stem Cell Institute of Cornell University.
The purpose of this article is more to address what are Exosomes and why are they different than young Stem Cells. If you are like me and many others who browse the internet as a main source of information you are going to find a lot of information about Exosomes. You are going to hear great things and not so great things about Exosomes. Virtually all cells in the human body produce Exosomes. Just as Exosomes are responsible for healing and spreading pro-growth and regenerative proteins, they are all responsible for be the Not So Nice Messenger of Bad. If you body has good cell and bad cells, a reasonable person doesn’t want the bad cells. With that said most of us would probably prefer young cells over old cells. These simply assumptions are the basis for why scientists are so interested in Young Cells.
What are Exosomes? Exosomes are part of the extra cellular vesicles that surround a cell. These Cell Derived Vesicles are present and perhaps in every eukaryotic fluid from your blood to your urine. Anyone reading this article can obviously access the internet and read all they want about Exosomes as long as you understand the basics you should be able to get some good unbiased information. Just remember Exosomes coming from a Good Cell is better than an Exosome coming from a Bad or Diseased Cell.
Why are some many people excited about Exosomes? The Excitement may be more about what Exosomes don’t have than what they do have. There is the old principle from the Hippocratic Oath “To Do No Harm” that may be the young cell derived Exosome’s greatest attribute. If an Exosome is extracted from a healthy placenta or some other mechanism associated with birth and procreation is should not:
- Have the contributing Stem Cell’s DNA
- Mesenchymal Stem Cell’s blood type
- Be inflammatory
The chances of an Exosome causing inflammation, as Exosomes are anti-inflammatory, is almost impossible, and the chance of rejection of an Exosome is also very low compared to a Mesenchymal Stem Cell’s from someone else’s baby.
The Exosomes from Good Cells carry much of the regenerative proteins of the Mesenchymal Stem Cell’s and the Exosomes fit the definition of Nan Particles. As Nano particles Exosomes are very small and can penetrate the Blood Brain Barrier. It is believed that much or all of the positive outcomes believed to have been attributed to Mesenchymal Stem Cells for the treatment of neurogenerative disorders are due to the Exosomes from the Mesenchymal Stem Cells. Many scientists now believe that you are skipping right to the Regeneration process by using Exosomes as opposed to Mesenchymal Stem Cell’s while avoiding, or at the very least, mitigating the risk of rejection and problems associated with inflammation.
