Efficacy assessment of mesenchymal stem cell transplantation for burn wounds in animals: a systematic review

BACKGROUND: Clinically, severe burns remain one of the most challenging issues, but an ideal treatment is yet absent. Our purpose is to compare the efficacy of stem cell therapy in a preclinical model of burn wound healing. METHODS: Research reports on mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) for burn wound healing were retrieved from 5 databases: PubMed, Embase, MEDLINE, Web of Science, and the Cochrane Library. The primary outcomes reported in this article include the un-healing rate of the wound area, the closure rate, and the wound area. Secondary outcomes included CD-31, vascular density, interleukin (IL)-10, thickness of eschar tissue, vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), and white blood cell count. Finally, a subgroup analysis was conducted to explore heterogeneity that potentially impacted the primary outcomes. A fixed-effects model with a 95% confidence interval (CI) was performed when no significant heterogeneity existed. Otherwise, a random-effects model was used. All data analysis was conducted by using Engauge Digitizer 10.8 and R software. RESULTS: Twenty eligible articles were finally included in the analysis. Stem cell therapy greatly improved the closure rate (2.00, 95% CI 0.52 to 3.48, p = 0.008) and compromised the wound area (− 2.36; 95% CI − 4.90 to 0.18; p = 0.069) rather than the un-healing rate of the wound area (− 11.10, 95% CI − 32.97 to 10.78, p = 0.320). Though p was 0.069, there was a trend toward shrinkage of the burn wound area after stem cell therapy. Vascular density (4.69; 95% CI 0.06 to 9.31; p = 0.047) and thickness of eschar tissue (6.56, 95% CI 1.15 to 11.98, p = 0.017) were also discovered to be significantly improved in the burn site of stem cell-treated animals. Moreover, we observed that animals in the stem cell group had an increased white blood cell count (0.84, 95% CI 0.01 to 1.66, p = 0.047) 5 days post treatment. Other indicators, such as VEGF (p = 0.381), CD-31 (p = 0.335) and IL-10 (p = 0.567), were not significantly impacted. CONCLUSIONS: Despite limited data from preclinical trials, this meta-analysis suggests that stem cell therapy is curative in decreasing the burn wound area and provides some insights into future clinical studies of stem cell therapy for burns.