Chinese Journal of Tissue Engineering Research ›› 2021, Vol. 25 ›› Issue (13): 2121-2126.doi: 10.3969/j.issn.2095-4344.3508

Previous Articles     Next Articles

Relationship between extracellular vesicles and radiation-induced tissue injury

Liu Tao1, Zhang Nini2, Huang Guilin2    

  1. 1Zunyi Medical University, Zunyi 563000, Guizhou Province, China; 2Department of Maxillofacial Surgery, Affiliated Stomatological Hospital of Zunyi Medical University, Zunyi 563000, Guizhou Province, China
  • Received:2020-06-05 Revised:2020-06-13 Accepted:2020-07-11 Online:2021-05-08 Published:2020-12-29
  • Contact: Huang Guilin, MD, Professor, Department of Maxillofacial Surgery, Affiliated Stomatological Hospital of Zunyi Medical University, Zunyi 563000, Guizhou Province, China
  • About author:Liu Tao, Master candidate, Zunyi Medical University, Zunyi 563000, Guizhou Province, China
  • Supported by:
    the National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 81760201 , No. 81960204 (to HGL); the National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 81860198 (to ZNN)

Abstract: BACKGROUND: Radiation-induced tissue injury is one of the more serious side effects of cancer patients after radiotherapy. Recent studies have shown that in the radiation-induced tissue injury model, extracellular vesicles as intercellular information carriers have two sides. On the one hand, they participate in the radiation-induced tissue injury process to mediate tissue damage. On the other hand, they participate in radiation-induced tissue injury repair by transferring biologically active substances. 
OBJECTIVE: To summarize the damage and repair effects of extracellular vesicles from different sources on radioactive tissue damage and to clarify the relationship between extracellular vesicles and radiation-induced tissue injury, which will be beneficial to explore new treatment strategies for radiation-induced tissue injury. 
METHODS: Databases of PubMed and CNKI were retrieved with the keywords of “extracellular vesicles, radiation-induced tissue damage (bone, brain, intestine, etc.), WNT signal” in Chinese and “radiation-induced tissue injury, extracellular vesicles, tissue repair and regeneration, vascular endothelial cells, bystander effects” in English. The retrieval time was from 1989 to 2020. After initial screening of titles and abstracts, irrelevant articles were excluded, and 61 eligible articles were included for result analysis. 
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Extracellular vesicles are membrane-closed vesicles that are naturally released from cells under normal physiological or abnormal pathological conditions. On the one hand, under pathological conditions, radioactive tissue damage cannot be separated from the mediation of extracellular vesicles; on the other hand, extracellular vesicles carrying information molecules can promote the repair of radioactive tissue damage. Therefore, in the field of radioactive tissue damage repair and regeneration, extracellular vesicles have the potential to become a new cell-free therapy, but whether it can be applied to clinical use requires more in-depth research and exploration.


Key words: extracellular vesicles, exosomes: microvesicles, vascular endothelial cells, radiation-induced tissue injury, repair, regeneration, review 

CLC Number: