PLoS ONE (Jan 2021)
Clinical efficacy on glycemic control and safety of mesenchymal stem cells in patients with diabetes mellitus: Systematic review and meta-analysis of RCT data.
Abstract
BackgroundDiabetes mellitus as a chronic metabolic disease is threatening human health seriously. Although numerous clinical trials have been registered for the treatment of diabetes with stem cells, no articles have been published to summarize the efficacy and safety of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) in randomized controlled trials (RCTs).Methods and findingsThe aim of this study was to systematically review the evidence from RCTs and, where possible, conduct meta-analyses to provide a reliable numerical summary and the most comprehensive assessment of therapeutic efficacy and safety with MSCs in diabetes. PubMed, Web of Science, Ovid, the Cochrane Library and CNKI were searched. The retrieval time was from establishment of these databases to January 4, 2020. Seven RCTs were eligible for analysis, including 413 participants. Meta-analysis results showed that there were no significant differences in the reduction of fasting plasma glucose (FPG) compared to the baseline [mean difference (MD) = -1.05, 95% confidence interval (CI) (-2.26,0.16), PConclusionsThis meta-analysis revealed MSCs therapy may be an effective and safe intervention in subjects with diabetes. However, due to the limited studies, a number of high-quality as well as large-scale RCTs should be performed to confirm these conclusions.