Table 1.

The function of exosomes derived from different types of stem cells.

Type	Physiological function	Therapeutic function	Pathological function	References
ESCs	Self-renewal and expansion	Enhancing survival and expansion of HPSCs		[56–58]
		Inducing gene expression changes in Muller cells of the retina		[59]
		Wound recovery		[60]
MSCs	Promoting MSCs proliferation	Repairing injured issues like heart, lung, and kidney	Promoting tumor growth	[17, 62–68]
		Cutaneous wound healing, TBI, and stroke		[69–71]
		Exerting immunomodulatory role on lymphocyte subsets		[72, 73]
		Allogenetic cell-based therapy		[74]
		Delivering drugs		[75, 76]
		Antitumor		[77–79]
		Promoting NPCs differentiation		[80]
NSCs	Regulating NSCs proliferation	Antibody targeting exosomes that may reduce viral infection	Neuropathological development of NSCs	[81–84]
			Triggering autoimmunity	[85]
EPCs	Promoting endothelial survival	Protecting human islets		[86, 87]
		Steering angiogenesis in acute kidney injury		[87]
		Promoting angiogenesis in hindlimb ischemia		[88]
		Protecting H/R induced endothelial cell injury		[89]
		Protecting cardiomyocytes		[90]
HSCs	Maintaining stem cell property	Increasing survival of endothelial cells		[91–93]
		MVs of CD133+ cells derived from hematopoietic tissues promote angiogenesis		[92]
		Vaccines for LEX that may enhance survival of patients with leukemia		[94]
CPCs	Self-renewal and differentiation	Cardioprotection promoting migration of endothelial cells		[95–97] [15]

Note: ESCs: embryonic stem cells; HPSCs: hematopoietic progenitor cells; MSCs: mesenchymal stem cells; TBI: traumatic brain injury; NPCs: neural progenitor cells; NSCs: neural stem cells; EPCs: endothelial progenitor cells; H/R: hypoxia/reoxygenation; HSCs: hematopoietic stem cells; MVs: microvesicles; LEX: leukemia cell-derived exosomes; CPCs: cardiac progenitor cells.