Currently, the application status of MSCs as treatment modalities in IPF is still in its infancy and remains exploratory. Although a number of safety and efficacy clinical trials of MSCs as therapeutic options in immune-mediated and cardiac diseases have already been published with tantalizing results, to our disappointment, pulmonary and critical care medicine have traditionally lagged behind other therapeutic and research fields including hematology, gastroenterology and cardiology in translational studies of the use of reparative cells