TY - JOUR TI - Comparison of freshly cultured versus cryopreserved mesenchymal stem cells in animal models of inflammation: A pre-clinical systematic review AU - Dave, Chintan AU - Mei, Shirley HJ AU - McRae, Andrea AU - Hum, Christine AU - Sullivan, Katrina J AU - Champagne, Josee AU - Ramsay, Tim AU - McIntyre, Lauralyn A2 - Méndez-Ferrer, Simón A2 - Zaidi, Mone VL - 11 PY - 2022 DA - 2022/07/15 SP - e75053 C1 - eLife 2022;11:e75053 DO - 10.7554/eLife.75053 UR - https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.75053 AB - Background:. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are multipotent cells that demonstrate therapeutic potential for the treatment of acute and chronic inflammatory-mediated conditions. Although controversial, some studies suggest that MSCs may lose their functionality with cryopreservation which could render them non-efficacious. Hence, we conducted a systematic review of comparative pre-clinical models of inflammation to determine if there are differences in in vivo measures of pre-clinical efficacy (primary outcomes) and in vitro potency (secondary outcomes) between freshly cultured and cryopreserved MSCs. Methods:. A systematic search on OvidMEDLINE, EMBASE, BIOSIS, and Web of Science (until January 13, 2022) was conducted. The primary outcome included measures of in vivo pre-clinical efficacy; secondary outcomes included measures of in vitro MSC potency. Risk of bias was assessed by the SYRCLE ‘Risk of Bias’ assessment tool for pre-clinical studies. Results:. Eighteen studies were included. A total of 257 in vivo pre-clinical efficacy experiments represented 101 distinct outcome measures. Of these outcomes, 2.3% (6/257) were significantly different at the 0.05 level or less; 2 favoured freshly cultured and 4 favoured cryopreserved MSCs. A total of 68 in vitro experiments represented 32 different potency measures; 13% (9/68) of the experiments were significantly different at the 0.05 level or less, with seven experiments favouring freshly cultured MSC and two favouring cryopreserved MSCs. Conclusions:. The majority of preclinical primary in vivo efficacy and secondary in vitro potency outcomes were not significantly different (p<0.05) between freshly cultured and cryopreserved MSCs. Our systematic summary of the current evidence base may provide MSC basic and clinical research scientists additional rationale for considering a cryopreserved MSC product in their pre-clinical studies and clinical trials as well as help identify research gaps and guide future related research. Funding:. Ontario Institute for Regenerative Medicine KW - cryopreserved KW - mesenchymal stem cells KW - inflammation KW - freshly-cultured KW - systematic review JF - eLife SN - 2050-084X PB - eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd ER -