Among neurodegenerative diseases, Parkinson's disease (PD) is the second most common disorder. It is marked by the degeneration of dopaminergic neurons and depletion of dopamine. The mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs)-derived exosomes hold a promise for addressing neurodegeneration-associated neurological disorders owing to their distinctive immunomodulatory and regenerative properties. The investigation explored the therapeutic potential of MSCs-derived exosomes to mitigate the pathological changes in the cerebellar cortex in a rat model of PD. Thirty rats were divided into control, PD, and PD-BM-MSCs-derived exosomes groups. For 5 weeks, rodents were administered a subcutaneous injection of 2 mg/kg/day of rotenone to induce a PD model. The PD group exhibited a substantial increase in relative cerebellar mRNA HOTAIR, BAX, and caspase 3 gene expression, along with a concomitant decrease in relative cerebellar miRNA-221 gene expression. Light and transmission electron microscopy also depicted marked degenerative changes in the cerebellar cortex. The immune expression of glial fibrillary acidic protein and ionized calcium-binding adaptor molecule-1 markedly increased, while synaptophysin expression markedly decreased. Interestingly, all changes showed a significant regression following treatment with exosomes derived from BM-MSCs. In conclusion, BM-MSCs-derived exosomes may be a promising PD intervention strategy.
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Shalaby et al. (2025) studied this question.
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