NAMPT encapsulated by extracellular vesicles from young adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells treated tendinopathy in a “One-Stone-Two-Birds” manner

BACKGROUND: Tendinopathy is the leading sports-related injury and will cause severe weakness and tenderness. Effective therapy for tendinopathy remains limited, and extracellular vesicles (EVs) derived from adipose tissue-derived mesenchymal stem cells (ADMSCs) have demonstrated great potential in tendinopathy treatment; however, the influence of aging status on EV treatment has not been previously described. RESULTS: In this study, it was found that ADMSCs derived from old mice (ADMSC(old)) demonstrated remarkable cellular senescence and impaired NAD+ metabolism compared with ADMSCs derived from young mice (ADMSC(young)). Lower NAMPT contents were detected in both ADMSC(old) and its secreted EVs (ADMSC(old)-EVs). Advanced animal experiments demonstrated that ADMSC(young)-EVs, but not ADMSC(old)-EVs, alleviated the pathological structural, functional and biomechanical properties in tendinopathy mice. Mechanistic analyses demonstrated that ADMSC(young)-EVs improved cell viability and relieved cellular senescence of tenocytes through the NAMPT/SIRT1/PPARγ/PGC-1α pathway. ADMSC(young)-EVs, but not ADMSC(old)-EVs, promoted phagocytosis and M2 polarization in macrophages through the NAMPT/SIRT1/Nf-κb p65/NLRP3 pathway. The macrophage/tenocyte crosstalk in tendinopathy was influenced by ADMSC(young)-EV treatment and thus it demonstrated "One-Stone-Two-Birds" effects in tendinopathy treatment. CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrates an effective novel therapy for tendinopathy and uncovers the influence of donor age on curative effects by clarifying the detailed biological mechanism. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT: [Image: see text] SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12951-022-01763-5.