2018: A year in Regenerative Medicine

Written by Adam Price-Evans
Journal articles US and Canada

In these highlights from his recent foreword, Regenerative Medicine Managing Commissioning Editor Adam Price-Evans reflects on a year in the journal.

This is an abridged version of an article that appeared in Regenerative Medicine. To read the full article, click here.

Adam Price-Evans1

1 Future Science Group, Unitec House, 2 Albert Place, London N31QB, UK. [email protected]

Content Highlights in 2018

Towards the end of 2017, we published a two-part Special Focus Issue entitled ‘Regenerative Medicine in Society: Interdisciplinary Perspectives’ [1,2<]. On this project, the journal partnered with the European Commission-funded EuroStemCell project, which aims to educate the public on stem cells and their impact on society.

We have continued to showcase the latest and best research in clinical translation, commercialization and regulation in this rapidly evolving sector and provided a specialist forum addressing the important challenges facing the field. In Volume 13, we published a large number of high-impact and insightful articles across a wide range of topics within the ever-evolving field of regenerative medicine. Table 1 details the ten most-read articles published in Regenerative Medicine in 2018 [3—12].

Table 1. The ten most read articles published in 2018, at the time of writing (Dec-18), ordered based on full-text PDF and HTML downloads.

Rank Title Refs.
1 Lessons for reviewing clinical trials using induced pluripotent stem cells: examining the case of a first-in-human trial for age-related macular degeneration [3]
2 Quality control guidelines for clinical-grade human induced pluripotent stem cell lines [4]
3 Direct-to-consumer marketing of stem cell interventions by Canadian businesses [5]
4 Cell therapy-processing economics: small-scale microfactories as a stepping stone toward large-scale macrofactories [6]
5 Fibroblasts and wound healing: an update [7]
6 Cytokines in umbilical cord blood-derived cellular product: a mechanistic insight into bone repair [8]
7 Biochemical characterization of pure dehydrated binate amniotic membrane: role of cytokines in the spotlight [9]
8 Conference Report: 6th Annual International Symposium on Regenerative Rehabilitation [10]
9 Pure platelet-rich plasma and supernatant of calcium-activated P-PRP induce different phenotypes of human macrophages [11]
10 Selling stem cell ‘treatments’ as research: prospective customer perspectives from crowdfunding campaigns [12]

At the time of writing, the most read article of 2018 in Regenerative Medicine is a Commentary entitled ‘Lessons for reviewing clinical trials using induced pluripotent stem cells: examining the case of a first-in-human trial for age-related macular degeneration’ [3]. In this piece, the authors examined the minutes of the ethical review committee meetings for the first-in-human trial using iPSCs with the aim of identifying lessons for similar committees in the future.

The second most accessed article of 2018 was a White Paper entitled ‘Quality control guidelines for clinical-grade human induced pluripotent stem cell lines. ‘This article summarized the key conclusions from two workshops and offered an international consensus focused on critical quality attributes and minimum testing requirements for clinical-grade iPSC lines [4].

Another highly read article in Volume 13 was ‘Cell therapy-processing economics: small-scale microfactories as a stepping stone toward large-scale macrofactories’ [6]. In this Research Article, the authors presented a case study examining small-scale manufacturing methods for cell-based therapies. They employed cell expansion research data, combined with operational cost modelling, to study the feasibility of cell microfactories for novel mesenchymal stem cell-based therapies.

Our top-scoring paper on the Altmetric platform [13] in 2018 was the Research Article entitled, ‘Retrorectus repair of incisional ventral hernia with urinary bladder matrix reinforcement in a long-term porcine model’ [14]. This article presents the evaluation of the remodeling characteristics of the abdominal wall in a porcine model of ventral hernia repair following reinforcement with urinary bladder matrix-derived surgical devices. This work received attention from numerous news outlets from around the world, which contributed to its high Altmetric score.

The Glossary for Cell & Gene Therapy and Regenerative Medicine: Fourth Edition

In 2018, our in-house editorial team worked closely with leading experts from industry and academia in regenerative medicine and related fields to provide the fourth edition of the Regenerative Medicine glossary. Not only were all previous definitions updated but almost 100 new terms were added. Based on continued advances and growth in the field of gene therapy, we expanded the glossary’s scope and defined a large number of terms associated with this area of research. This expanded coverage is reflected in the glossary’s new title: The Glossary for Cell & Gene Therapy and Regenerative Medicine [15].

This glossary is directed toward both experts and newcomers within academic, clinical, industry and societal settings and aims to aid harmonization of the terminology used across the world. With this exciting area of research continuingly becoming more present in the public eye, it is also highly important that effort is made to help educate and enhance global understanding. The glossary therefore aims to bridge the gap between scientists working in the field and the general public as well as to benefit anyone interested in learning more about this field.

Conclusion

We appreciate all feedback from the regenerative medicine community regarding the direction of our content, especially suggestions of any priority topics in the field that you feel the journal should cover. We welcome unsolicited research, review and opinion article proposals, amongst others, and would be delighted to hear from you if you are interested in submitting to the journal.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank our readers, contributing authors, valued Editorial Board members and peer reviewers for their continued support and collaboration as we continue to publish the latest research, reviews and opinions. We very much look forward to working with you all over the next year and hope to see Regenerative Medicine continue to grow and serve the research community in 2019.

Financial & competing interests disclosure

Adam Price-Evans is an employee of Future Medicine Ltd, publisher of Regenerative Medicine. The author has no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.

References

  1. Rosemann A, Barfoot J, Blackburn CC. Special focus issue on regenerative medicine in society: interdisciplinary perspectives (part I) — Foreword. Regen. Med. 12(6), 577—580 (2017).
  2. Barfoot J, Rosemann A, Blackburn CC. Special focus issue on regenerative medicine in society: interdisciplinary perspectives (part II) — Foreword. Regen Med. 12(7), 733—736 (2017).
  3. Takashima K, Inoue Y, Tashiro S, Muto K. Lessons for reviewing clinical trials using induced pluripotent stem cells: examining the case of a first-in-human trial for age-related macular degeneration. Regen. Med. 13(2), 123—128 (2018).
  4. Sullivan S, Stacey GN, Akazawa C et al. Quality control guidelines for clinical-grade human induced pluripotent stem cell lines. Regen. Med.13(7), 859—866 (2018).
  5. Turner L. Direct-to-consumer marketing of stem cell interventions by Canadian businesses. Regen. Med. 13(6), 643—658 (2018).
  6. Harrison RP, Medcalf N, Rafiq QA. Cell therapy-processing economics: small-scale microfactories as a stepping stone toward large-scale macrofactories. Regen. Med. 13(2), 159—173 (2018).
  7. des Jardins-Park HE, Foster DS, Longaker MT. Fibroblasts and wound healing: an update. Regen. Med. 13(5), 491—495 (2018).
  8. Sane MS, Misra N, Mousa OM et al. Cytokines in umbilical cord blood-derived cellular product: a mechanistic insight into bone repair. Regen. Med.13(8), 881—898 (2018).
  9. Sane MS, Misra N, Quintanar NM, Jones CD, Mustafi SB. Biochemical characterization of pure dehydrated binate amniotic membrane: role of cytokines in the spotlight. Regen. Med. 13(6), 689—703 (2018).
  10. Loghmani MT, Roche JA. Conference Report: 6th Annual International Symposium on Regenerative Rehabilitation. Regen. Med. 13(4), 371—374 (2018).
  11. Escobar G, Escobar A, Ascui G et al. Pure platelet-rich plasma and supernatant of calcium-activated P-PRP induce different phenotypes of human macrophages. Regen. Med. 13(4), 427—441 (2018).
  12. Snyder J, Turner L. Selling stem cell ‘treatments’ as research: prospective customer perspectives from crowdfunding campaigns. Regen. Med.13(4), 375—384 (2018).
  13. Altmetric. (2018) www.altmetric.com/Google Scholar
  14. Young DA, Jackson N, Ronaghan CA, Brathwaite CE, Gilbert TW. Retrorectus repair of incisional ventral hernia with urinary bladder matrix reinforcement in a long-term porcine model. Regen. Med. 13(4), 395—408 (2018).
  15. Price-Evans A. Introducing Volume 13 of Regenerative Medicine. Regen. Med. 13(1), 1—5 (2018).