Human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cell-derived exosomal miR-27b attenuates subretinal fibrosis via suppressing epithelial–mesenchymal transition by targeting HOXC6

作者：Dongli Li, Junxiu Zhang, Zijia Liu, Yuanyuan Gong, Zhi Zheng · 发表于：Stem Cell Research & Therapy · 年份：2021 · DOI：10.1186/s13287-020-02064-0 · 被引用次数：91 · 研究领域：Extracellular vesicles in disease、Retinal Diseases and Treatments、Retinal Development and Disorders

BACKGROUND AND AIM: Subretinal fibrosis resulting from neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD) is one of the major causes of serious and irreversible vision loss worldwide, and no definite and effective treatment exists currently. Retinal pigmented epithelium (RPE) cells are crucial in maintaining the visual function of normal eyes and its epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is associated with the pathogenesis of subretinal fibrosis. Stem cell-derived exosomes have been reported to play a crucial role in tissue fibrosis by transferring their molecular contents. This study aimed to explore the effects of human umbilical cord-derived mesenchymal stem cell exosomes (hucMSC-Exo) on subretinal fibrosis in vivo and in vitro and to investigate the anti-fibrotic mechanism of action of hucMSC-Exo. METHODS: In this study, human umbilical cord-derived mesenchymal stem cells (hucMSCs) were successfully cultured and identified, and exosomes were isolated from the supernatant by ultracentrifugation. A laser-induced choroidal neovascularization (CNV) and subretinal fibrosis model indicated that the intravitreal administration of hucMSC-Exo effectively alleviated subretinal fibrosis in vivo. Furthermore, hucMSC-Exo could efficaciously suppress the migration of retinal pigmented epithelial (RPE) cells and promote the mesenchymal-epithelial transition by delivering miR-27b-3p. The latent binding of miR-27b-3p to homeobox protein Hox-C6 (HOXC6) was analyzed by bioinformatics pre...