Stem Cell Therapy for Crohn's Disease: Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Preclinical and Clinical Studies

Overview

Journal Stem Cell Res Ther

Publisher Biomed Central

Date 2021 Aug 19

PMID 34407875

Citations 37

Authors

Ruo Wang

Qigu Yao

Wenyi Chen

Feiqiong Gao

Pan Li

Jian Wu

Jiong Yu

Hongcui Cao

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Background: We explored whether stem cell therapy was effective for animal models and patients with Crohn's disease (CD).

Methods: We searched five online databases. The relative outcomes were analyzed with the aid of GetData Graph Digitizer 2.26 and Stata 16.0 software. The SYRCLE risk of bias tool and the MINORS tool were used to assess study quality.

Results: We evaluated 46 studies including 28 animal works (n = 567) and 18 human trials (n = 360). In the animal studies, the disease activity index dramatically decreased in the mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) treatment groups compared to the control group. Rats and mice receiving MSCs exhibited longer colons [mice: standardized mean difference (SMD) 2.84, P = 0.000; rats: SMD 1.44, P = 0.029], lower histopathological scores (mice: SMD - 4.58, p = 0.000; rats: SMD - 1.41, P = 0.000) and lower myeloperoxidase levels (SMD - 6.22, P = 0.000). In clinical trials, stem cell transplantation reduced the CD activity index (SMD - 2.10, P = 0.000), the CD endoscopic index of severity (SMD - 3.40, P = 0.000) and simplified endoscopy score for CD (SMD - 1.71, P = 0.000) and improved the inflammatory bowel disease questionnaire score (SMD 1.33, P = 0.305) compared to control values. CD patients maintained high remission rates for 3-24 months after transplantation.

Conclusions: Stem cell transplantation is a valuable supplementary therapy for CD.

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