Biochemical and biophysical research communicationsSep 17, 2025

Milk-derived particles reduce skin scarring in mice by blocking a specific cell signaling pathway

Regenerative Health Weekly Brief ↗PubMed ↗DOI ↗

Updated Jan 7, 2026

Abstract

Milk-derived extracellular vesicles (Mi-EVs) may reduce skin fibrosis in systemic scleroderma, as indicated by histological and biochemical assessments.

Mi-EVs carry antioxidant properties, promote skin tissue regeneration, and reduce inflammation.
The TGF-β1/Smad3 pathway is implicated in tissue fibrosis through fibroblast activation and collagen deposition.
In a mouse model of SSc induced by Bleomycin, Mi-EVs were shown to ameliorate the degree of skin fibrosis.
Treatment with Mi-EVs decreased the expression of pro-fibrotic genes in mouse embryonic fibroblasts.
Mi-EVs inhibited the phosphorylation of Smad3 induced by TGF-β1 in fibroblasts.

Simplified

Systemic scleroderma (SSc) causes multi-system fibrosis, damaging the skin, lungs, kidneys, and blood vessels, leading to serious consequences such as organ failure and pulmonary hypertension. Milk-derived extracellular vesicles (Mi-EVs) carry miRNAs and proteins that are antioxidant, promote skin tissue regeneration and reduce inflammation. The TGF-β1/Smad3 pathway drives tissue fibrosis by activating fibroblasts and collagen deposition. This study aimed to investigate the therapeutic effect of Mi-EVs on SSc and the regulation of TGF-β1/Smad3 signaling pathways. In Bleomycin-induced SSc mice, the degree of skin fibrosis was assessed by HE and Masson staining, and collagen and inflammatory levels were tested by ELISA. These findings indicate that Mi-EVs ameliorate skin fibrosis. NIH3T3 mouse embryonic fibroblasts were used to demonstrate that the treatment of Mi-EVs reduced the expression of pro-fibrotic genes. Mi-EVs inhibited TGF-β1-induced phosphorylation of Smad3 in fibroblasts. These findings indicate that Mi-EVs ameliorate systemic sclerosis through the TGF-β1/Smad3 pathway.

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Competing interests

Declaration of competing interest The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests:Xinying Li reports financial support was provided by Xuzhou Medical University. If there are other authors, they declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

PubMed

Milk-derived particles reduce skin scarring in mice by blocking a specific cell signaling pathway

Abstract

Full Text

Funding

Competing interests

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