Extracellular vesicles released by hair follicle and adipose mesenchymal stromal cells induce comparable neuroprotective and anti-inflammatory effects in primary neuronal and microglial cultures

Abstract

Background aims: Despite intensive research, to date, there is no effective treatment for neurodegenerative diseases. Among the different therapeutic approaches, recently, the use of extracellular vesicles (EVs) derived from mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) has gained attention.

Methods: In the present work, we focused on medium/large extracellular vesicles (m/lEVs) derived from hair follicle--derived (HF) MSCs, comparing their potential neuroprotective and anti-inflammatory effect against adipose tissue (AT)-MSC-derived m/lEVs.

Results: The obtained m/lEVs were similar in size with comparable expression of surface protein markers. The neuroprotective effect of both HF-m/lEVs and AT-m/lEVs was statistically significant in dopaminergic primary cell cultures, increasing cell viability after the incubation with 6-hidroxydopamine neurotoxin. Moreover, the administration of HF-m/lEVs and AT-m/lEVs counteracted the lipopolysaccharide-induced inflammation in primary microglial cell cultures, decreasing the levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines, tumor necrosis factor-α and interleukin-1β.

Conclusions: Taken together, HF-m/lEVs demonstrated comparable potential with that of AT-m/lEVs as multifaceted biopharmaceuticals for neurodegenerative disease treatment.

Keywords: adipose tissue–derived stem cells; extracellular vesicles; hair follicle stem cells; microglia primary cell culture; neurodegenerative diseases; neuron primary cell culture.