Treatment with mesenchymal stem cell microvesicles (MSC MVs)  could help improve conditions of acute respiratory distress syndrome-associated early pulmonary fibrosis, says a new study. The latest study conducted by a group of researchers from Ningbo City First Hospital, Ningbo, China, to establish whether MSC MVs exert anti- fibrotic effects and also to investigate the mechanisms underlying these effects in ARDS-associated early pulmonary fibrosis, found that it suppressed pathological progression to a significant extent. The research observed that MSC MVs, in a mice model, markedly reversed the upregulation of N-cadherin and α-SMA and attenuated the downregulation of E-cadherin and ZO-1. The expression and nuclear translocation of β-catenin were clearly decreased on day 7 after MSC MV treatment, the researchers said in a report published in the journal Drug Design, Development and Therapy.  The researchers added that intravenous administration of MSC MVs has been reported to significantly increase alveolar fluid rate clearance, reduce lung protein permeability, and reduce the levels of inflammation in injured alveoli following severe E. coli pneumonia in ex vivo perfused human lungs.