Abstract
Presentation Description :
Mesenchymal stem/stromal cells (MSCs) have emerged as a promising cell-based therapy for immune-mediated diseases including ocular autoimmune diseases owing to their immunomodulatory effects. However, there are several challenges in developing robust MSC therapy such as functional variations of MSCs and safety issues associated with live cell treatments. Lately, accumulating evidence suggests that extracellular vesicles (EVs) produced by MSCs are a promising alternative to MSC therapy as they recapitulate a broad range of the therapeutic effects observed with MSC treatment while exhibiting advantages over MSCs. Our group also demonstrated the immunomodulatory effects of MSC-derived EVs in murine models of autoimmune uveitis and Sjögren’s syndrome-related dry eye. In this talk, I will present our key findings supporting the therapeutic potential of MSC-derived EVs for the treatment of ocular autoimmune diseases and discuss potential bioassays and biomarkers to validate the immunomodulatory potency of MSC-EVs in vivo.
This abstract was presented at the 2023 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in New Orleans, LA, April 23-27, 2023.