REVIEW article
Front. Mol. Biosci.
Sec. Cellular Biochemistry
This article is part of the Research TopicExosomal Biomarkers: Roles in Diagnostics and Therapeutics - Volume IIIView all articles
The Role of Exosomes in Ankylosing Spondylitis: From Biological Features and Functional Cargo to Clinical Applications
Provisionally accepted
- 1Gansu University of Chinese Medicine, Lanzhou, China
- 2Fudan University, Shanghai, China
- 3Gansu Provincial Hospital, Lanzhou, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Exosomes are small extracellular vesicles secreted by nearly all cell types and widely distributed in body fluids. They not only mediate intercellular material transfer but also play an important role in the regulation of immune pathways. Given their diverse biological functions, studies investigating the regulatory roles of exosomes in ankylosing spondylitis (AS) are receiving increasing attention. The functions of exosomes in AS largely depend on their bioactive cargo, including microRNAs (miRNAs), circular RNAs (circRNAs), long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs), proteins, and other molecules. In addition, exosome-induced intercellular communication and modulation of immune regulatory pathways are also critical. Recent studies have shown that exosomal crosstalk mechanisms may affect major AS-related pathways, such as immune responses, inflammatory signaling, and bone metabolism balance. This review summarizes the biological characteristics of exosomes and advances in their functional cargos in AS regulation. More animal and clinical studies are needed to explore the role of exosomes in AS. The ongoing development of sequencing technologies and biotechnology indicates that exosomes hold potential as diagnostic biomarkers for AS and provide new insights into its diagnosis and treatment.
Keywords: ankylosing spondylitis, biomarkers, Exosomes, immune inflammation, microRNA
Received: 11 Nov 2025; Accepted: 26 Jan 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Yuan, Xu, Zhang, Xi, Pan, Zhao, Li, Li and LU. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Yan LU
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.