Cell therapy demonstrates promise for acute respiratory distress syndrome - but which cell is best?

Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) constitutes a spectrum of increasingly severe acute respiratory failure and is the leading cause of death and disability in the critically ill. There are no therapies for ARDS, and management remains supportive. Cell therapy, particularly with allogeneic mesenchymal stem/stromal cells (MSCs), has emerged as a promising therapeutic strategy for ARDS, favorably modulating the immune response to reduce lung injury, while facilitating lung regeneration and repair. In this issue of the journal, Rojas and colleagues provide us with a rationale to consider autologous bone marrow-mononuclear cells as an alternative to MSCs for this devastating disease.