Can Exosomes transform your practice?

How excited are you about exosomes? This beauty buzzword is currently on the ascent—Kim Kardashian was reported to have used exosome therapy following a laser and light procedure, while exosomes have been a popular skin booster in Korea for a couple of years.
As well as being anti-inflammatory and well tolerated, exosomes are said to be revolutionary for rejuvenation and repair, as well as encouraging youthful-looking skin.

"The science involves cell-to-cell communication: exosomes, released by nearly all cells in the human body, are microscopic sized sacs that are able to transfer signalling molecules to unhealthy or inactive cells that need them most. In the process, they also boost collagen production, improve the skin’s texture and work magic on fine lines and wrinkles."

“Exosomes were first discovered in 1983 so they've been in science for a long time, we just didn't really know what we could do with them,” said Dr Robert King speaking at Wigmore Medical Presents this April. “There’s currently extensive research going on in this space, not just in the anti-ageing realm, but also in the anticancer world as well."
With huge amounts of potential, exosomes are considered better than growth factors and stem cells for anti-ageing, as exosomes carry these molecules directly to the cells.
Human and animal-derived exosomes are said to be more powerful than plant-derived versions—in the UK some treatments are illegal, although you will still find some practitioners offering injectable exosome procedures. More commonly, you can expect to find lab and plant-derived exosomes being used topically in facials and post-procedure for rejuvenation purposes.

EXO|E
They are even creeping into skincare products: EXO|E Skin Revitalizing Complex contains active naturally occurring secretory factors from plants: plant factors, liposomes, growth factors, and anti-stressing factors. Chemical-free and water-based, it works on both youth boosting and common skin conditions.
“It's a skin revitalising complex which is comprised of thousands of plant and stem cell secretory factors—it comprises everything that the skin needs to really regenerate and heal itself while supporting and supplementing its natural processes.” says Dr King.
When used in combination with aesthetic procedures, the three-step, 11-day regime will result in less downtime, enabling patients to do more aggressive treatments (should they so wish)while optimising procedure results. The product has also shown to reduce inflammation by 61 per cent and can also be used preprocedure for treatments including microneedling and resurfacing.
Dr King told Wigmore Presents delegates about a dermatology study in Texas performed with multiple patients, where pretty consistent results over the age reversal process of the skin were shown.
“We firstly Visia-scanned the patients and then put the complex on one side of their face in a single application,” he explains. “We brought them back three weeks later to rescan them and saw two years of skin age reversal in just a 21-day period—the collagen and elastin production process is 12 to 16 weeks.
“I'm not saying we sped that up and made it faster, what this is pointing to is hyaluronic acid production, and if we can produce hyaluronic acid, it's going to hydrate really well which makes us look like we have younger, healthier skin, and that's where we get that really quick result. Hydrated, well-toned skin looks younger because that's what we have when we have very supple skin.”

Future-proofing
Practitioner Dr Lauren Jamieson, who also spoke on the subject at this years’ Wigmore Medical Presents, believes this innovative and exciting technology is set to form the basis of the future of regenerative and aesthetic medicine.
“Exosomes are extracellular vesicles or nanovesicles which encapsulate and act as envelopes for a payload—they are essentially a cargo that can contain liposomes, lipids, nucleic acids and proteins. They form a novel mode of intracellular communication and delivery to target cells and tissues.
“This is incredibly exciting because exosomes, particularly in terms of plant-derived vesicles, are innately stable. They have low immunogenicity, meaning no undesirable immune response, and the capacity to penetrate target tissues in an exceptional way.
“It is without any doubt, going to be bringing to patients a very exciting means of concluding the results of aesthetic treatments, by limiting inflammation and improving regeneration and recovery times.”

Combination treatment
Dr King also spoke about the benefits of using the product prior to energy-based treatments, neurotoxins or fillers. “Your patients will not bruise or swell—I have patients that will come for lip filler injections and they have a dinner that night and they're like, ‘can I go?’ Normally we would advise them not to as their lips are going to be very swollen. But now we're able to do lip filler injections and they do not leave with swollen lips. It's really remarkable.
“There's two things you have to have in every aesthetic procedure that you do—a good clinical outcome and a good patient experience,” Dr King summarises. “If you can marry those two things up, then you have a successful procedure or process for your patients.”

The EXO|E range is now available at Wigmore Medical. To purchase, email orders@wigmoremedical.com or log into your account at wigmoremedical.com