Background: Cell therapy has emerged as a promising intervention to improve recovery after stroke, with therapeutic potential arising from regeneration, anti-neuroinflammation, and reduced cell death. However, clinical trial findings have been mixed, and translation into practice remains limited. Although rehabilitation is commonly delivered alongside cell therapy, it is often insufficiently reported, with variation across trials complicating interpretation of results. Therefore, this review aimed to:
Methods: Searches were conducted in MEDLINE, EMBASE, and Web of Science. Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) and non-RCTs were included. Study screening and data extraction were performed independently by two reviewers.
Results: 30 studies were included. Preliminary analysis suggests that rehabilitation interventions delivered in cell therapy clinical trials vary, with motor imagery and mirror therapy among the most common approaches. Most studies did not report rehabilitation delivery or described it only as conventional or standard rehabilitation, with few details on the setting, content, or dose.
Conclusion: The reporting of rehabilitation across trials is heterogeneous, making it difficult to determine whether the observed therapeutic effects arise from rehabilitation alone, cell therapy independently, or a synergistic interaction. The findings of this review will provide evidence-based recommendations to improve the design and interpretability of future cell therapy trials, inform rehabilitation delivery, and advance the clinical translation of cell therapy for stroke.