Inflammation, chondrocyte reduction, and cartilage extracellular matrix degradation are the three phenomena that occur in cartilage damage. Extracellular vesicles work to overcome this by releasing cargo that can lower inflammation, increase the number of chondrocytes, and restore cartilage extracellular matrix in injury sites. (Created with BioRender.com).
ECM: Extracellular matrix; EV: Extracellular vesicle.