Exosomes for Bone Diseases

The bone marrow microenvironment contains a variety of cell types. These cells interact in complex ways to mediate cell differentiation, proliferation, and cell death, and cell-cell communication plays a key role in these interactions throughout growth, development, aging, and disease. Exosomes and microvesicles (MVs) derived from bone marrow cells are now recognized to play important roles in cell-cell communication, and these extracellular vesicles are found to contain a variety of microRNAs. Certain of these miRNAs can impact tumor angiogenesis in bone and others can influence cancer metastasis to bone. Current efforts are exploring the possibilities and methods of how MVs can be used to deliver genetic and pharmacologic therapy to specific target tissues. Future research into this exciting area of cell biology is likely to yield important insights that have significant clinical and therapeutic impact.