TABLE 2.
A selective overview of studies reporting exosomes in retina diseases.
| References | Origin of exosomes | Disease involved | Exosomal cargo | Biological function | Year of publication |
| Inoue et al. (2007) | Mouse bone marrow MSCs | RD | NA | Delay of the photoreceptor apoptosis | 2007 |
| Hajrasouliha et al. (2013) | Retinal astroglial cells | Laser-induced CNV | Endostatin, CXCL-1, MIP-1α, MMP MMP-3, MMP-9, Nov, PEDF | Inhibition of CNV | 2013 |
| Ragusa et al. (2015) | Vitreous humor and serum | Uveal melanoma | miR-21, miR-34a, miR-146a | Promotion the proliferation of tumor cells | 2015 |
| Yu et al. (2016) | Mouse adipose MSCs and human umbilical cord MSCs | Retinal laser injury | NA | Down-regulation of MCP-1 and alleviation of laser induced retinal injury. | 2016 |
| Kannan et al. (2016) | RPE | AMD | αB-Crystallin | Neural protection for adjacent RPE cells and photoreceptors. | 2016 |
| Knickelbein et al. (2016) | ARPE-19 | RD | Proinflammatory cytokines | Inhibition of T cell proliferation | 2016 |
| Mead and Tomarev (2017) | Human bone marrow MSCs | Optic nerve crush | NA | Neuroprotection and neurogenesis | 2017 |
| Shigemoto-Kuroda et al. (2017) | MSCs | Type 1 diabetes and experimental autoimmune uveoretinitis | TSG-6 | Inhibition of the activation of antigen-presenting cells and inhibition of the development of T helper 1 (Th1) and Th17 cells | 2017 |
| Huang et al. (2018) | Plasma | DR | igG | Promotion of microvascular damage | 2018 |
| Safwat et al. (2018) | Rabbit adipose MSCs | DR | miR-222 | Reduction of retinal degeneration | 2018 |
| Zhang et al. (2018) | Human umbilical cord MSCs | Macular holes | Promotion of the functional and anatomical recovery of macular hole | 2018 | |
| Zhang et al. (2019b) | ARPE-19 under stress | AMD | IL-1β, IL-18, and caspase-1 | Upregulation of NLRP3 inflammasome | 2019 |
| Liu et al. (2019) | Human retinal pericytes (ACBRI-183) | DR | cPWWP2A | Regulation of retinal microvascular function by Mir-579/ingiogenin 1/occludin/SIRT1 pathway | 2019 |
| Liu et al. (2019) | Human umbilical cord MSCs | Hyperglycemia-induced retinal inflammation | miR-126 | Down-regulation of HMGB1 expression and NLRP3 inflammasome in HRECs induced by high glucose | 2019 |
| Mathew et al. (2019) | Human bone marrow MSCs | Retinal ischemia-reperfusion | NA | Enhancement of the functional recovery and reduction of the neuroinflammation and apoptosis | 2019 |
| Zhang et al. (2019a) | Platelet-rich plasma | DR | CXCL10 | Upregulation of TLR4 signal pathway and mediation of hyperglycemia-induced retinal endothelial injury | 2019 |
| Ma et al. (2020) | Rat bone marrow MSCs | Retinal detachment | NA | Reduction of the expression of TNF-α and IL-1β and Inhibition of photoreceptor apoptosis | 2020 |
| Bian et al. (2020) | Neural stem/progenitor cell | RD | 17 miRNAs (let-7a-5p, miR-26a-5p, miR-21-5p, etc.) | Protection of photoreceptor cells by inactivating microglia cells | 2020 |
| Nicholson et al. (2020a) | RPEs | AMD | Ligands and neuraminidase | Promotion of rapid absorption of receptor cells | 2020 |
| Zhang W. et al. (2020) | Platelet-rich plasma | DR | NA | Activation of YAP, enhancement of both the proliferation and fibrogenic activity of Müller cells via the PI3K/Akt pathway. | 2020 |
| Zhu et al. (2020) | Retinal astrocytes | DR | NA | Promotion of the proliferation and migration of endothelial cells | 2020 |
| Yang et al. (2020) | ARPE-19 | AMD | NA | Aggravation of oxidative stress damage in RPE cells | 2020 |
| Ahn et al. (2020) | ARPE-19 | AMD | miR-494-3p | Potential biomarkers of mitochondrial dysfunction | 2020 |
| Ke et al. (2020) | ARPE-19 | AMD | Apaf1 | Induction of inflammation and apoptosis in normal RPE cells via Apaf1/caspase-9 axis | 2020 |
| Fukushima et al. (2020) | ARPE-19 | AMD | Angiogenic factors | Promotion of the angiogenesis | 2020 |
| Morris et al. (2020) | RPE | AMD | miR-21 | Regulation of microglia function | 2020 |
| Seyedrazizadeh et al. (2020) | Human embryonic stem cells | Optic nerve injury | NA | Protection for retinal ganglion cells | 2020 |
| Aires et al. (2020) | Microglia | Glaucoma | NA | Activation of microglia and induction of cell death | 2020 |
| Gu S. et al. (2020) | ARPE-19 | DR | miR-202-5p | Inhibition of growth, migration and tube formation of HUVEC cells | 2020 |
| Koh et al. (2020) | Human placenta-derived MSCs | Optic nerve injury | NA | Restore the expression of regeneration markers in R28 cells injured by hypoxia damage | 2020 |
| Zhang Y. et al. (2020) | ARPE-19 | DR | miR-543 | Induction of EMT in receptor RPE cells | 2020 |
| Nicholson et al. (2020b) | ARPE-19 | AMD | Fibronectin, annexin A2 | Trigger loss in transepithelial resistance (TER) in recipient monolayers mediated by HDAC6 | 2020 |
| Yan et al. (2020) | Human 293T cells | Retinal ischemia | NA | Neuroprotective effect | 2020 |
| Gu C. et al. (2020) | Adipose MSCs | DR | miR-192 | Negative regulation of ITGA1 | 2020 |
| Li et al. (2021) | Human umbilical cord MSCs | CNV | miR-27b | Inhibition of EMT and subretinal fibrosis by targeting HOXC6 | 2021 |
| Wang et al. (2021) | ARPE-19 | RD | NA | Protect the photoreceptor and inhibit the expression of inflammatory factors, reduce the oxidative damage. | 2021 |
RD, retinal degeneration;CNV, choroidal neovascularization;AMD, age-related macular degeneration;DR, diabetic retinopathy;MSCs, mesenchymal stem cell;NA, not available, not mentioned in the article;RPE, Retinal Pigment Epithelium;EMT, epithelial-mesenchymal transformation.