What is Exosome therapy?

Exosome therapy is a relatively new regenerative medicine treatment for many purposes. One of them includes joint pain treatments. It uses elements of stem cells to revitalize the body.

These elements are called exosomes (extracellular vesicles or small structures within a cell) derived from human mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs.) 

They carry MSCs-released proteins such as DNA, mRNA, and others to enable the affected or treated cells to ‘communicate’ better.

This therapy is highly targeted and flexible for osteoarthritis (knee pain), musculoskeletal injuries, or other degenerative joint diseases.

Exosome therapy tackles the root problems of chronic joint pain and inflammation, not just the symptoms.

How does Exosome therapy work?

Exosome therapy involves injecting exosomes into the treatment area. The billions of exosomes then attach themselves to the target cells in the body, such as blood, brain, muscle, skeletal, and organ cells.

As soon as they attach themselves to the cells, they transfer and provide raw materials (proteins) and instructions (mRNA, miRNA, signaling cytokines) that tell them to regenerate and repair. 

For an average osteoarthritis knee treatment , you’ll receive a concentration of about 1 billion extracellular vesicles. Those with more severe conditions can be given up to 15 billion extracellular vesicles during a treatment.

The doctor will prepare a customized treatment plan that includes the dosage needed to help you find relief from your symptoms and get optimal treatment results.

Benefits of exosome therapy

As time goes by and more research develops, there are reports of the benefits of exosome therapy for osteoarthritis knee treatment . 

One key benefit of exosome therapy or is that it might be less risky than live stem cell transplants. Exosomes are unable to reproduce and cannot change into dangerous cell types, which explains why.

Below are more benefits linked to this type of musculoskeletal treatment procedure:

Reduces Inflammation

When harmful antigens such as bacterial infections, environmental chemicals, or pollen try to attack our immune system, our body will turn to inflammation to fight them off. However, long-term inflammation leads to DNA damage, tissue death, and internal scarring.

So, the injected exosomes function by rapidly stimulating the body’s natural healing mechanisms, promoting faster recovery and local tissue repair.

Chronic pain reduction

Chronic pain can negatively impact daily life. A decreased inflammation effectively reduces the chronic pain signals delivered to the brain, resulting in less overall pain.

Fires up tissue regeneration

Among other things, tissue death is connected to the aging process. Exosomes successfully stop tissue degeneration by telling the tissue cells to regenerate, leading to the development of new tissue and general healthy cell regeneration.

Boosts immune health

An immune system that is compromised is far more vulnerable to infection. Exosome therapy gives cells the cellular resources they need to renew themselves, make repairs, and maintain their health.
In turn, healthy cells strengthen the body’s general defense mechanisms, making it more difficult for infection to take hold.

What problems does it help?

This osteoarthritis knee treatment therapy is highly impressive. It motivates whole body rejuvenation that leads to reversing the effects of aging. However, it can also treat certain concerns, including:

  • Poor immune function
  • Orthopedic injuries
  • Osteoarthritis issues, for eg. knee, elbow, neck (cervical), lower back (lumbar), etc.
  • Rheumatoid arthritis (RA)
  • Other types of joint pain problems, for eg. sciatica, tendonitis, torn meniscus, Achilles tendonitis, and Rotator cuff tears.

 

Basically, Exosome therapy is a type of interventional chronic pain treatment and management program.

Precautions of doing Exosome therapy

A patient’s body could reject the administered exosomes. However, it’s unlikely to occur since exosomes aren’t cells or tissues. 

Our body doesn’t have the same response similar to a foreign substance. Nevertheless, here are some precautions to note while carrying out this osteoarthritis knee treatment:

Contamination

If the chosen exosomes aren’t correctly extracted and sterilized, they can carry potentially harmful genetic materials from the MSCs’ origin. It can result in growths or abnormal development of cells at the target site or other areas in the body.

Poor preparation

If the therapy preparation has fewer exosomes, it might produce below-par results because insufficient cells are targeted.

Bacterial infection

Bacteria can escape into the final therapy preparation due to improper extraction methods or incomplete sterilization of the exosomes.
Hence, it’s necessary to seek a qualified and trusted exosome therapy clinic to ensure safe treatment.

Side effects of Exosome Therapy

This natural type of musculoskeletal treatment is safer than using an over-the-counter medication to hide your joint pain.

Expected downtime for Exosome Therapy

This osteoarthritis knee treatment is an outpatient treatment. You’re free to resume your daily activities once you’ve finished your session. There’s no downtime or recovery period for osteoarthritis knee treatment and other joint pain treatments.

However, you need to follow some aftercare instructions to ensure the best outcome possible:

Avoid intense workouts and strenuous activity at least 24 to 48 hours after this osteoarthritis knee treatment.

Then, you should wait for three to four weeks before resuming cardio activities or strength training workouts.