Researchers unravel the healing mechanisms of extracellular vesicles

Extracellular vesicles (EVs)—nanometer sized messengers that travel between cells to deliver cues and cargo—are promising tools for the next generation of therapies for everything from autoimmune and neurodegenerative diseases to cancer and tissue injury. EVs derived from stem cells have already been shown to help heart cells recover after a heart attack, but exactly how they help and whether the beneficial effect is specific to EVs derived from stem cells has remained a mystery.