Engineered Extracellular Vesicles from Antler Blastema Progenitor Cells: A Therapeutic Choice for Spinal Cord Injury.

Yang, Shijie; Xue, Borui; Zhang, Yongfeng; Wu, Haining; Yu, Beibei; Li, Shengyou; Ma, Teng; Gao, Xue et al. · ACS Nano · 2025

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

Deer antler blastema progenitor cells (ABPCs) are promising for regenerative medicine due to their role in annual antler regeneration, the only case of complete organ regeneration in mammals. ABPC-derived signals show great potential for promoting regeneration in tissues with limited natural regenerative ability. Our findings demonstrate the capability of extracellular vesicles from ABPCs (EVs<sup>ABPC</sup>) to repair spinal cord injury (SCI), a condition with low regenerative capacity. EVs<sup>ABPC</sup> significantly enhanced the proliferation of neural stem cells (NSCs) and activated neuronal regenerative potential, resulting in a 5.2-fold increase in axonal length. Additionally, EVs<sup>ABPC</sup> exhibited immunomodulatory effects, shifting macrophages from M1 to M2. Engineered with activated cell-penetrating peptides (ACPPs), EVs<sup>ABPC</sup> significantly outperformed EVs from rat bone marrow stem cells (EVs<sup>BMSC</sup>) and neural stem cells (EVs<sup>NSC</sup>), promoting a 1.3-fold increase in axonal growth, a 30.6% reduction in neuronal apoptosis, and a 2.6-fold improvement in motor function recovery. These findings support ABPC-derived EVs as a promising therapeutic candidate for SCI repair.

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