Isolation, Characterization, and Therapeutic Application of Extracellular Vesicles from Cultured Human Mesenchymal Stem Cells

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are heterogeneous membrane nanoparticles released by most cell types, and they are increasingly recognized as physiological regulators of organismal homeostasis and important indicators of pathologies; in the meantime, their immense potential to establish accessible and controllable disease therapeutics is emerging. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) can release large amounts of EVs in culture, which have shown promise to jumpstart effective tissue regeneration and facilitate extensive therapeutic applications with good scalability and reproducibility. There is a growing demand for simple and effective protocols for collecting and applying MSC-EVs. Here, a detailed protocol is provided based on differential centrifugation to isolate and characterize representative EVs from cultured human MSCs, exosomes, and microvesicles for further applications. The adaptability of this method is shown for a series of downstream approaches, such as labeling, local transplantation, and systemic injection. The implementation of this procedure will address the need for simple and reliable MSC-EVs collection and application in translational research.