Quality of Reporting in Preclinical Urethral Tissue Engineering Studies: A Systematic Review to Assess Adherence to the ARRIVE Guidelines

Preclinical research within the area of urethral tissue engineering has not yet been successfully translated into an efficient therapeutic option for patients. This gap could be attributed, in part, to inadequate design and reporting of the studies employing laboratory animals. In this study, a syst...

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Main Authors: Tariq O. Abbas, Abubakr Elawad, Abdul Kareem Pullattayil S., Cristian Pablo Pennisi
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2021-08-01
Series:Animals
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/11/8/2456
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author Tariq O. Abbas
Abubakr Elawad
Abdul Kareem Pullattayil S.
Cristian Pablo Pennisi
author_facet Tariq O. Abbas
Abubakr Elawad
Abdul Kareem Pullattayil S.
Cristian Pablo Pennisi
author_sort Tariq O. Abbas
collection DOAJ
description Preclinical research within the area of urethral tissue engineering has not yet been successfully translated into an efficient therapeutic option for patients. This gap could be attributed, in part, to inadequate design and reporting of the studies employing laboratory animals. In this study, a systematic review was conducted to investigate the quality of reporting in preclinical studies utilizing tissue engineering approaches for urethral repair. The scope was on studies performed in rabbits, published between January 2014 and March 2020. Quality assessment of the data was conducted according to the Animal Research: Reporting of in Vivo Experiments (ARRIVE) guidelines by the scoring of a 38-item checklist in different categories. A total of 28 articles that fulfilled the eligibility criteria were included in the study. The range of ARRIVE score was from 0 to 100, taking into consideration having reported the item in question or not. The mean checklist score was 53%. The items that attained the highest scores included the number of animals utilized, the size of control and experimental groups, and the definition of experimental outcomes. The least frequently reported items included the data regarding the experimental procedure, housing and husbandry, determination and justification of the number of animals, and reporting of adverse events. Surprisingly, full disclosure about ethical guidelines and animal protocol approval was missing in 54% of the studies. No paper stated the sample size estimation. Overall, our study found that a large number of studies display inadequate reporting of fundamental information and that the quality of reporting improved marginally over the study period. We encourage a comprehensive implementation of the ARRIVE guidelines in animal studies exploring tissue engineering for urethral repair, not only to facilitate effective translation of preclinical research findings into clinical therapies, but also to ensure compliance with ethical principles and to minimize unnecessary animal studies.
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spelling doaj.art-d5728073bf204b7586de8b6e7d2921b02023-11-22T06:32:26ZengMDPI AGAnimals2076-26152021-08-01118245610.3390/ani11082456Quality of Reporting in Preclinical Urethral Tissue Engineering Studies: A Systematic Review to Assess Adherence to the ARRIVE GuidelinesTariq O. Abbas0Abubakr Elawad1Abdul Kareem Pullattayil S.2Cristian Pablo Pennisi3Regenerative Medicine Research Group, Department of Health Science and Technology, Aalborg University, 9220 Aalborg, DenmarkPediatric Urology Section, Sidra Medicine, Doha 26999, QatarClinical Library, Sidra Medicine, Doha 26999, QatarRegenerative Medicine Research Group, Department of Health Science and Technology, Aalborg University, 9220 Aalborg, DenmarkPreclinical research within the area of urethral tissue engineering has not yet been successfully translated into an efficient therapeutic option for patients. This gap could be attributed, in part, to inadequate design and reporting of the studies employing laboratory animals. In this study, a systematic review was conducted to investigate the quality of reporting in preclinical studies utilizing tissue engineering approaches for urethral repair. The scope was on studies performed in rabbits, published between January 2014 and March 2020. Quality assessment of the data was conducted according to the Animal Research: Reporting of in Vivo Experiments (ARRIVE) guidelines by the scoring of a 38-item checklist in different categories. A total of 28 articles that fulfilled the eligibility criteria were included in the study. The range of ARRIVE score was from 0 to 100, taking into consideration having reported the item in question or not. The mean checklist score was 53%. The items that attained the highest scores included the number of animals utilized, the size of control and experimental groups, and the definition of experimental outcomes. The least frequently reported items included the data regarding the experimental procedure, housing and husbandry, determination and justification of the number of animals, and reporting of adverse events. Surprisingly, full disclosure about ethical guidelines and animal protocol approval was missing in 54% of the studies. No paper stated the sample size estimation. Overall, our study found that a large number of studies display inadequate reporting of fundamental information and that the quality of reporting improved marginally over the study period. We encourage a comprehensive implementation of the ARRIVE guidelines in animal studies exploring tissue engineering for urethral repair, not only to facilitate effective translation of preclinical research findings into clinical therapies, but also to ensure compliance with ethical principles and to minimize unnecessary animal studies.https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/11/8/2456urethral strictureshypospadiasanimal experimentsquality assessmenttranslational research
spellingShingle Tariq O. Abbas
Abubakr Elawad
Abdul Kareem Pullattayil S.
Cristian Pablo Pennisi
Quality of Reporting in Preclinical Urethral Tissue Engineering Studies: A Systematic Review to Assess Adherence to the ARRIVE Guidelines
Animals
urethral strictures
hypospadias
animal experiments
quality assessment
translational research
title Quality of Reporting in Preclinical Urethral Tissue Engineering Studies: A Systematic Review to Assess Adherence to the ARRIVE Guidelines
title_full Quality of Reporting in Preclinical Urethral Tissue Engineering Studies: A Systematic Review to Assess Adherence to the ARRIVE Guidelines
title_fullStr Quality of Reporting in Preclinical Urethral Tissue Engineering Studies: A Systematic Review to Assess Adherence to the ARRIVE Guidelines
title_full_unstemmed Quality of Reporting in Preclinical Urethral Tissue Engineering Studies: A Systematic Review to Assess Adherence to the ARRIVE Guidelines
title_short Quality of Reporting in Preclinical Urethral Tissue Engineering Studies: A Systematic Review to Assess Adherence to the ARRIVE Guidelines
title_sort quality of reporting in preclinical urethral tissue engineering studies a systematic review to assess adherence to the arrive guidelines
topic urethral strictures
hypospadias
animal experiments
quality assessment
translational research
url https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/11/8/2456
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