Abstract / Summary
Abstract Bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) is a common complication of prematurity marked by altered lung development, which leads to lifelong sequalae. Mesenchymal stromal cells (MSC) earned robust biological therapeutic plausibility by targeting the complex pathogenesis of BPD in the experimental setting, with early phase clinical trials sprouting around the world. The quality of reporting of cell therapy products has been notoriously poor across all research fields. There have been recent efforts to improve the transparency of reporting to enhance reproducibility and scientific rigor of cell therapy studies. This led to a newly proposed MSC reporting guidance in 2025 established through a Delphi process. We retrospectively investigated whether clinical studies published using MSCs in the prevention or treatment of BPD, which all preceded the guidance, spontaneously reported key elements discussed in the latest MSC reporting guidance. Our primary intent is to establish the baseline status of the current existing evidence regarding best reporting practices and identify areas of improvement for future studies. We found that nearly all studies did not provide enough information to properly describe the cell product administered in patients, which can lead to poor reproducibility and interpretation while limiting the pooling of the results in future meta-analysis. Specifically, only 4 of 10 studies reported on 75% or more of the reporting items, while 4 of 10 studies reported on less than 40% of reporting items identified in the 2025 reporting guidance. Cell culture conditions were the least reported area. We encourage trialists using MSC therapies for BPD to report the recommended information as per the latest 2025 reporting guidance. This will ensure proper interpretation of the cell product and its therapeutic capacity via open science, ultimately improving MSC cell therapy optimization and translation.