Stem-cell therapy for bronchopulmonary dysplasia

Clinical trials of mesenchymal stem/stromal cell (MSC) therapy for bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) are underway. A thorough understanding of the preclinical work that underpins these trials is critical for neonatal practitioners to properly evaluate them.

Significant progress has been made in understanding that MSCs have anti-inflammatory and proangiogenic effects, and that these can be mediated by the noncellular exosome fraction of MSCs.

In rodent hyperoxia models of BPD, MSCs have a proangiogenic effect mediated largely by vascular endothelial growth factor and shift the balance of endogenous lung cells from a proinflammatory to a prohealing phenotype. MSC-derived exosomes can recapitulate these effects.