As skeletal muscle is one of the largest organs in the body, its damage can directly reflect a decline in somatic function, thus, further affecting daily life and health. Inflammation is a prerequisite for the repair of injured skeletal muscles. Chronic inflammation induced by inadequate repair in skeletal muscle aggravates tissue injury. Exosomes regulate inflammatory responses to facilitate the repair of skeletal muscle injury. Moreover, exosomal miR-223 with high specificity is the most abundant miRNA in peripheral blood and regarded as biomarkers for inflammation post skeletal muscle injury, which warrants further investigation. Available studies have demonstrated that exosomal miR-223 negatively correlates with TNF-α levels in serum and regulates the canonical inflammatory NF-κB signaling pathway. miR-223 is a negative feedback regulator with great potential for adjusting inflammatory imbalance and promoting skeletal muscle repair. The research on the regulation of negative feedback factors in the inflammatory signaling pathway is essential in biology and medicine. Therefore, this review mainly elaborates the formation, heterogeneity and markers of exosomes and points out exosomal miR-223 as a beneficial role in chronic skeletal muscle inflammation and can be expected to be a potential therapeutic target for skeletal muscle damage.
Keywords: Chronic inflammation; Exosome; Skeletal muscle injury; Targeted therapy; miR-223.
© 2022 The Authors. Orthopaedic Surgery published by Tianjin Hospital and John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.