Abstract
Stem cell-derived extracellular vesicles (EVs) play a crucial role in intercellular communication and reflect the functional characteristics of their parent cells. Despite the significant therapeutic potential of these EVs, the molecular features of EVs derived from different stem cells and their relationship with tissue specificity remain underexplored. In this study, we conducted integrated proteomic and transcriptomic analyses of EVs derived from six dental stem cells (DSCs) and three systemic stem cells (SSCs) to investigate the role of EVs in tissue-specific molecular transfer. This study found that although DSCs and SSCs share 92.1% of the core proteome, the EVs derived from each stem cell type displayed distinct molecular signatures. EVs from DSCs were enriched in signaling molecules, reflecting their parent cells’ roles in local tissue repair, whereas EVs from SSCs carried mitochondrial and metabolic proteins, indicating their preferential involvement in metabolic regulation. Furthermore, we uncovered that the parent cells transferred 83% of the core proteins to their EVs in a tissue-specific pattern, ensuring that dental EVs retain prominent signaling functions. Thus, understanding the relationship between EVs and their parent stem cells with respect to tissue origin would be helpful to harness EVs as targeted therapeutic agents, particularly in oral regenerative medicine.
Impact Statement
The study provides critical guidance for precision regenerative medicine by distinguishing the therapeutic applicability of dental stem cell versus systemic stem cell-derived extracellular vesicles (EVs), avoiding indiscriminate use. By delineating these lineage-specific EV functions, the research lays a foundation for developing EV-based therapies tailored to disease type and tissue context and directs future research toward validating these EVs in clinical models to realize their translational potential.
Keywords
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
