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. 2026 Oct 16;14:1976532. doi: 10.3389/fbioe.2026.1976532

FIGURE 2.

Diagram illustrating extracellular vesicle (EV) engineering divided into surface engineering, encapsulation, and genetic engineering. Surface methods include chemical coupling and physical anchoring, while encapsulation describes exogenous loading techniques. Genetic engineering pathways use viral vectors, CRISPR/Cas9, and plasmids to create edited EVs.

Overview of current EV engineering strategies for wound repair. EV engineering strategies are broadly categorized into surface engineering, genetic engineering, and encapsulation. Surface engineering modifies the EV membrane through chemical conjugation or physical anchoring to improve targeting, circulation stability, or tissue retention. Genetic engineering modifies donor cells using plasmids, viral vectors, or clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats/CRISPR-associated protein 9 (CRISPR/Cas9) technology, enabling the production of EVs enriched with specific proteins or nucleic acids. Encapsulation introduces therapeutic molecules into EVs through exogenous approaches, including co-incubation, electroporation, extrusion, freeze–thaw cycling, sonication, and transfection. PEG, polyethylene glycol; CBD, collagen-binding domain; EVs, extracellular vesicles.