TABLE 1.

Characteristic comparison of ASC-exos and ASCs.

	ASC-exos	ASCs
Source	acquisition from ASCs with exosome separation methods, exist in adipose tissue and stable in serum and blood	easy acquisition and high yield from adipocyte tissues, especially from white adipose tissue
Morphology	small lipid bilayer vesicles	mesenchymal-like cells
Management	could be sterile filtered and frozen without cryo-preservatives, easily long-term storage and delivery, easily keep biological activity	should preserve cell viability and function from manufacture to storage and delivery, high storage requirements, complex cultivation
Biological properties	protect cargoes from degradation, target specificity, good tissue permeability, intercellular communication, immune function, tissue homeostasis and development of cell fate	multi-lineage differentiation, secret great kinds of growth factors by paracrine function, prosurvival effects, regulation of immune function, angiogenesis
Secretome	DNAs, RNAs, lipids, cytokines, enzymes from the parent cell	exosomes, cytokines, DNAs, RNAs, lipids, enzymes
Biosafety	limited immunogenicity, high biosafety	immunogenicity, biosafety
Applications	considered as multiple bioactive substances for tissue regeneration, could be gene modification, upload drugs as carriers, upload in other carriers such as nanomaterials	considered as ideal stem cell source for cell and tissue regeneration; could be gene modification, upload in carriers such as nanomaterials
Clinical trials	lack enough clinical trials to confirm the safety and effectiveness	security and effectiveness are verified in many diseases
Application disadvantages	relative low purity and yield, complicated components, substantial degree of heterogeneity in dosing regimens in the reported cases, lacking in vivo clinical trials	limited cell survival, immune rejection efficacy, senescence-induced genetic instability, inactivate function, and the possibility of unfavorable differentiation, individual differences

Abbreviations: ASCs, Adipose-derived stem cells; ASC-exos, ASC-derived exosomes.