Fig. 1.
Association between elevated levels of circular extracellular vesicles (EVs) and stroke outcome after mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) injection. Modified from Bang et al. (10) The levels of circulating EVs increased im-mediately after intravenous injection of autologous MSCs (A and B), but not after placebo treatment (C, right lanes). Although patients of the MSC group re-ceived the same number of MSCs (1 × 106 cells/kg), the levels of circulating EVs were varied among patients; (A) marked increase of EV levels in patients who showed clinically significant improvement, and (B) lesser degree of increase in those who showed no clinically significant improvement. The circulating EVs levels were correlated with improvement in MRI indices of neuroplasticity as well as in motor function.