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World J Stem Cells. Jul 26, 2026; 18(7): 119260
Published online Jul 26, 2026. doi: 10.4252/wjsc.119260
Published online Jul 26, 2026. doi: 10.4252/wjsc.119260
Exosomal miR-181d-5p promotes spinal cord injury repair by driving microglial polarization from M1 to M2 phenotype
Wei Wang, Bin Wang, Hua Yin, Department of Orthopedics, Taizhou Hospital of Zhejiang Province Affiliated to Wenzhou Medical University, Taizhou 317600, Zhejiang Province, China
Co-first authors: Wei Wang and Bin Wang.
Author contributions: Wang W and Wang B contributed equally to this manuscript and are co-first authors. Wang W, Wang B, and Yin H participated in the design, interpretation of the studies and analysis of the data and review of the manuscript; Wang W and Wang B drafted the work and revised it critically for important intellectual content and were responsible for the acquisition, analysis and interpretation of data for the work; Yin H made substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Supported by Basic Public Welfare Research Plan of Zhejiang Province, No. LGF21H090015; and Taizhou Science and Technology Plan, No. 20ywa08.
Institutional animal care and use committee statement: This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of Taizhou Hospital of Zhejiang Province Affiliated to Wenzhou Medical University (Approval No. EZ-T-2025022B).
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
ARRIVE guidelines statement: The authors have read the ARRIVE guidelines, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the ARRIVE guidelines.
Data sharing statement: The datasets used and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
Corresponding author: Hua Yin, Department of Orthopedics, Taizhou Hospital of Zhejiang Province Affiliated to Wenzhou Medical University, No. 150 Ximen Road, Linhai District, Taizhou 317600, Zhejiang Province, China. yinhuacaro@126.com
Received: January 23, 2026
Revised: March 10, 2026
Accepted: May 7, 2026
Published online: July 26, 2026
Processing time: 181 Days and 8.4 Hours
Revised: March 10, 2026
Accepted: May 7, 2026
Published online: July 26, 2026
Processing time: 181 Days and 8.4 Hours
Core Tip
Core Tip: Our work demonstrates that mesenchymal stem cell-exosomes promote recovery after spinal cord injury by delivering miR-181d-5p to microglia, thereby repolarizing them from an M1 to an M2 state. This proposed mechanism provides fresh insight into the therapeutic action of mesenchymal stem cell-exosomes and underscores the translational potential of miR-181d-5p in spinal cord injury treatment strategies.