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REVIEW article

Front. Pharmacol.
Sec. Experimental Pharmacology and Drug Discovery
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fphar.2024.1366992
This article is part of the Research Topic Extracellular Vesicles in Disease Therapy: Harnessing Diverse Origins for Advanced Treatments View all articles

Extracellular vesicles affecting embryo development in vitro: a potential culture medium supplement

Provisionally accepted
Yamei Xue Yamei Xue 1Haixia Zheng Haixia Zheng 2Yuping Xiong Yuping Xiong 2Kun Li Kun Li 2*
  • 1 Assisted Reproduction Unit, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China, Hangzhou, Jiangsu Province, China
  • 2 Institute for Reproductive Health, School of Pharmacy, Hangzhou Medical College, Hangzhou, China, Hangzhou, Jiangsu Province, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Abstract: Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are nanometer-sized lipid bilayer vesicles released by cells, playing a crucial role in mediating cellular communication. This review evaluates the effect of EVs on early embryonic development in vitro by systematically searching the literature across three databases, Embase, PubMed, and Scopus, from inception (Embase, 1947; PubMed, 1996; and Scopus, 2004) to June 30, 2024. A total of 28 studies were considered relevant and included in this review. The EVs included in these investigations have been recovered from a range of sources, including oviduct fluid, follicular fluid, uterine fluid, seminal plasma, embryos, oviduct epithelial cells, endometrial epithelial cells, amniotic cells, and endometrial-derived mesenchymal stem cells collected primarily from mice, rabbits, cattle and pigs. This diversity in EV sources highlights the broad interest and potential applications of EVs in embryo culture systems. These studies have demonstrated that supplementation with EVs derived from physiologically normal biofluids and cells to the embryo culture medium system has positive effects on embryonic development. Conversely, EVs derived from cells under pathological conditions have shown a negative impact. This finding underscores the importance of the source and condition of EVs used in culture media. Further, the addition of EVs as a culture medium supplement holds significant therapeutic potential for optimizing in vitro embryo culture systems. In conclusion, this evaluation offers a thorough assessment of the available data on the role of EVs in embryo culture media and highlights the potential and challenges of using EVs in in vitro embryo production.

    Keywords: extracellular vesicles, Exosomes, cellular communication, Culture Media, Embryo development, Mechanism

    Received: 08 Jan 2024; Accepted: 05 Sep 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Xue, Zheng, Xiong and Li. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Kun Li, Institute for Reproductive Health, School of Pharmacy, Hangzhou Medical College, Hangzhou, China, Hangzhou, Jiangsu Province, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.