The secretome is the entirety of all substances that cells release into their environment. This entails the collection of bioactive molecules released by cells, including cytokines, growth factors, extracellular vesicles, exosomes, lipids, and proteins that help regulate cellular communication, tissue repair, and immune response.
What is in the Secretome?
- Extracellular vesicles (EVs)
- Exosomes
- Cytokines
- Chemokines
- Growth factors
- Proteins and peptides
- Lipids and nucleic acids
How the Secretome Works
Cells constantly communicate with surrounding tissues by secreting biological signals. These signals help coordinate critical functions such as:
- Tissue regeneration
- Inflammation control
- Immune modulation
- Cell growth and differentiation
- Wound healing
The secretome can act as a biological communication network that helps the body respond to injury, disease, and stress.
In regenerative medicine and advanced therapies, the secretome is gaining significant attention because researchers believe many therapeutic benefits traditionally associated with stem cell therapy may actually come from the signaling molecules that cells release rather than the application of the cells themselves.
Significance of secretome in cell therapy and regenerative medicine:
The application of secretome in the Cell Therapy field is primarily being used to mimic the process of healing that already innately occurs in the body. When there is an injury in the body, cells start signaling to initiate a cytokine response to the location of the wound. The inflammatory cytokines response in turn activates various healing mechanisms that may include matrix degenerative enzymes to clear out damaged tissue, protein building blocks to rebuild tissues among many other functions. By utilizing the signaling compounds that the body naturally understands in a therapeutic application, we are able to recruit and initiate the body’s own healing process and mechanism for a multitude of diseases. This allows the secretome to have broad therapeutic applications.
Secretome research is expanding into areas such as:
- Orthopedic and musculoskeletal repair
- Neurological disorders
- Autoimmune diseases
- Cardiovascular regeneration
- Chronic wound healing
- Anti-inflammatory therapies
While the potential is significant, developing secretome-based therapeutics requires process standardization and reproducibility in production. The next step for advancing these therapies from research into clinical application requires expertise in:
- Starting material sourcing
- Donor qualification
- Analytical characterization
- Potency assay development
- Process optimization
- cGMP biomanufacturing
- Quality and regulatory compliance
- High-quality starting materials
- Advanced therapy testing services
- Custom assay development
- Clinical research support
- cGMP biomanufacturing
BBG Advanced Therapies’ Role in Supporting Secretome Development
At BBG Advanced Therapies, we support innovators developing next-generation regenerative medicine solutions through offering process optimization and standardization, high technical support, and integrated capabilities that span:
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References
Yáñez-Mó M, Siljander PRM, Andreu Z, et al. Biological properties of extracellular vesicles and their physiological functions. Journal of Extracellular Vesicles. 2015;4:27066. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.3402/jev.v4.27066 Vizoso FJ, Eiro N, Cid S, Schneider J, Perez-Fernandez R. Mesenchymal Stem Cell Secretome: Toward Cell-Free Therapeutic Strategies in Regenerative Medicine. International Journal of Molecular Sciences. 2017;18(9):1852. https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/18/9/1852 Ferreira JR, Teixeira GQ, Santos SG, et al. Mesenchymal Stromal Cell Secretome: Influencing Therapeutic Potential by Cellular Pre-conditioning. Frontiers in Immunology. 2018;9:2837. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2018.02837/full EL Andaloussi S, Mäger I, Breakefield XO, Wood MJA. Extracellular vesicles: biology and emerging therapeutic opportunities. Nature Reviews Drug Discovery. 2013;12:347–357. https://www.nature.com/articles/nrd3978 Toh WS, Lai RC, Hui JHP, Lim SK. MSC exosome as a cell-free MSC therapy for cartilage regeneration: Implications for osteoarthritis treatment. Seminars in Cell & Developmental Biology. 2017;67:56–64. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1084952116302166 Phinney DG, Pittenger MF. Concise Review: MSC-Derived Exosomes for Cell-Free Therapy. Stem Cells. 2017;35(4):851–858. Yáñez-Mó M, Siljander PRM, Andreu Z, et al. Biological properties of extracellular vesicles and their physiological functions. Journal of Extracellular Vesicles. 2015;4:27066. Vizoso FJ, Eiro N, Cid S, Schneider J, Perez-Fernandez R. Mesenchymal Stem Cell Secretome: Toward Cell-Free Therapeutic Strategies in Regenerative Medicine. International Journal of Molecular Sciences. 2017;18(9):1852. Ferreira JR, Teixeira GQ,
