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World J Stem Cells. Jun 26, 2020; 12(6): 471-480
Published online Jun 26, 2020. doi: 10.4252/wjsc.v12.i6.471
Stem cell therapy for COVID-19 and other respiratory diseases: Global trends of clinical trials
Hong-Long Ji, Cong Liu, Run-Zhen Zhao
Hong-Long Ji, Run-Zhen Zhao, Department of Cellular and Molecular Biology, University of Texas Health Science Centre at Tyler, Tyler, TX 75708, United States
Hong-Long Ji, Texas Lung Injury Institute, University of Texas Health Science Centre at Tyler, Tyler, TX 75708, United States
Cong Liu, School of Medicine, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen 518000, Guangdong Province, China
Author contributions: Ji HL contributed to the conception and design of the study, preparation of the manuscript, and approval of submission; Liu C searched databases, graphed the results, and drafted the manuscript; Zhao RZ searched databases, drafted and edited the manuscript.
Supported by the NIH grants, No. HL87017.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All authors declare no competing financial interests.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Hong-Long Ji, MD, PhD, Professor, Department of Cellular and Molecular Biology, Texas Lung Injury Institute, University of Texas Health Science Centre at Tyler, 11937 U.S. Highway 271, Tyler, TX 75708, United States. james.ji@uthct.edu
Received: May 1, 2020
Peer-review started: May 1, 2020
First decision: May 15, 2020
Revised: May 17, 2020
Accepted: May 21, 2020
Article in press: May 21, 2020
Published online: June 26, 2020
Processing time: 54 Days and 13.5 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: Preclinical studies demonstrate significant improvement of lung disorders by stem cells and extracellular vesicles. Completed clinical trials show cell-based therapies are safe and tolerant for acute and chronic respiratory diseases. Current challenges for cell therapy of pulmonary illnesses are long-term safety, efficacy, and personal medicines.