Safety and efficacy of mesenchymal stem cells in COVID-19 patients: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract

Background: Coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) is a zoonotic disease that has become a global pandemic. The fast evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic and persist problems make COVID-19 highly infectious; publicly accessible literature and other sources of information continue to expand in volume. The mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) therapy efficacy for COVID-19 is debatable. Objective: This systematic review and meta-analysis (SRMA) aimed to evaluate the usefulness of MSCs in treating COVID-19. Methods: Relevant publications were retrieved from databases up to April 30, 2022. In the case of dichotomous data, the 95% confidence intervals (CIs) and pooled risk ratio (RR) were estimated with a random effects model (REM) or fixed effects model (FEM). The pooled mean difference (MD) and 95% CIs were calculated with REM or FEM in continuous data. In the outcomes, studies with insufficient or unusable data were reported descriptively. Results: A total of eight randomized controlled trials (RCTs) with 464 people were chosen for this SRMA. Relative to the control group, mortality was significantly lower in the MSCs group (RR: 0.66, 95% CI: 0.44, 0.99, Z = 2.01, p =.04); other secondary outcomes, such as the clinical symptom improvement rate improved in the MSCs group (RR: 1.44, 95% CI: 1.05, 1.99, Z = 2.24, p =.03), clinical symptom improvement time (MD: −4.01, 95% CI: −6.33, −1.68, Z = 3.38, p =.0007), C-reactive protein (CRP) (MD: −39.16, 95% CI: −44.39, −33.94, Z = 14.70, p