Vitamin E and ginseng supplementation to enhance female sexual function: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, clinical trial.

Female sexual disorders (FSD) are a spectrum of disorders common among women, especially in their middle age, which can reduce the female quality of life substantially. We aimed to evaluate the effects of a combined vitamin E and ginseng supplement on amelioration of female sexual dysfunction. In a 6-week, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial, participants, suffering from sexual dysfunction based on the female sexual function index (FSFI) questionnaire, were randomly allocated to receive the supplement (100 IU vitamin E, 67 mg Korean ginseng, and 40 mg Siberian ginseng) or placebo daily. The primary outcome in our trial was the change in the FSFI total score. Sixty-nine participants were enrolled, but only 31 in each group completed the trial. Changes in the FSFI total score and its domain scores were significant during the trial course within each group. However, the supplement only ameliorated desire and satisfaction domains superior to the placebo. In case of the total score and other domains, the changes were insignificantly different between the treatment groups. Although our study could not find additional benefits for the vitamin E and ginseng supplement over placebo in enhancing sexual function overall, the supplement worked better in enhancing sexual desire and satisfaction.

Mesenchymal Stem Cell-Derived Extracellular Vesicles: A Novel Cell-Free Therapy.

In recent years, mesenchymal stem/stromal cells (MSCs) have widely been considered as therapeutic tools in basic researches and clinical trials. Accumulating evidence supports the idea that MSCs perform their therapeutic roles in paracrine manner especially through trophic factors and extracellular vesicles (EVs). Compared to cells, EVs have several advantages to be used as therapeutic agents, such as they lack self-replicating capabilities, dangers of ectopic differentiation, and tumor formation, genetic instability, and cellular rejection by the immune system. Since the MSC-derived EVs (MSC-EVs) appear to exert similar therapeutic effects of their parent cells, such as ability to arrive themselves to the site of injury and immunomodulatory properties, MSC-EVs have been widely studied in many animal models, including kidney, liver, cardiovascular, immunological, and neurological diseases. Regarding this, MSC-EVs look to be a novel and interesting approach to be studied in clinical trials of different inflammatory diseases. In this review, we summarize the properties and applications of MSC-EVs in different diseases.