Abstract
BACKGROUND: To compare the efficacy of the therapy of spinal cord injury with intravenous transplantation of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) by Meta-analysis. METHODS: Studies of the BBB scores after intravenous transplantation of BMSCs were searched out from Pubmed, SCI, Cochrane Library, Chinese journal full-text database, China Biology Medicinedisc and Wanfang data-base and analyzed by Review Manager 5.2.5. RESULTS: Nine randomized controlled animal trials were selected with 235 rats enrolled. The studies are divided to different subgroups by different models of SCI and different time to transplantation. The results of Meta-analysis in different subgroups both indicated that the rats of experimental group (BMSCs group) got better BBB scores than control group at 1, 3 and over 5 weeks after intravenous transplantation of BMSCs with significant differences. The heterogeneity between impacted injury model and oppressed injury model subgroups decreased with the passage of time (I(2) = 75.8%, 39.7%, 0%). No heterogeneity was found between 3 d and 7 d subgroups. CONCLUSION: The intravenous transplantation of BMSCs is an efficient way to cure spinal cord injury, which can improve the motor function of rats. The therapeutic window is wide.