Impaired Fetal Lung Development can be Rescued by Administration of Extracellular Vesicles Derived from Amniotic Fluid Stem Cells

    August 2020 in “ bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) ”
    Lina Antounians, Vincenzo Davide Catania, Louise Montalva, Benjamin D. Liu, Huayun Hou, Cadia Chan, Andreea Matei, Areti Tzanetakis, Bo Li, Rebeca Lopes Figueira, Karina Miura da Costa, Amy P. Wong, Robert D. Mitchell, Anna L. David, Ketan Patel, Paolo De Coppi, Lourenço Sbragia Neto, Michael D. Wilson, Janet Rossant, Augusto Zani
    TLDR Extracellular vesicles from amniotic fluid stem cells can improve underdeveloped fetal lungs.
    The study explored a novel stem cell-based approach to enhance fetal lung development by administering extracellular vesicles (EVs) derived from amniotic fluid stem cells (AFSCs). In models of pulmonary hypoplasia, AFSC-EVs promoted lung branching morphogenesis, alveolarization, and stimulated differentiation of pulmonary epithelial cells and fibroblasts. The regenerative effects were confirmed in two models of injured human lung cells, where AFSC-EVs restored pulmonary epithelial homeostasis. The beneficial effects were attributed to the release of RNA cargo, mainly miRNAs, which regulate gene expression involved in fetal lung development. The findings suggested that AFSC-EVs could potentially be used therapeutically for underdeveloped fetal lungs.
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