Adherence to Animal Research: Reporting of In Vivo Experiments Guidelines in Stem Cell Studies in Animal Models of...

The Animal Research: Reporting of In Vivo Experiments (ARRIVE) guidelines were published in 2010 and revised in 2020 to improve the reporting of preclinical animal studies. The present study evaluated the reporting of animal stem cell research related to Parkinson's disease (PD).

Articles on this topic published up to October 18, 2024, were systematically searched in relevant databases. For each individual study, we analyzed the proportion of subsets that were reported, partially reported, or unreported for each of the 38 ARRIVE 2.0 items. We compared reporting before and after the publication of the ARRIVE guidelines, and analyzed compliance score changes over time and by country.

We analyzed 90 animal studies related to PD. None of the studies reported sample size calculations, adverse event reporting, or humane endpoints. Additionally, only about 20% or less of the studies reported on strategies to minimize potential confounders, inclusion or exclusion of animal conditions, limitations, allocation methods, and pre-protocol enrollment. We observed no substantial improvement in adherence after publication of the guidelines or over time.

The reporting of key design principles in animal stem cell research related to PD was insufficient both before and after the introduction of the ARRIVE guidelines in 2010. Both researchers and journal editors should pay more attention to the accurate, comprehensive reporting of animal studies.