BACKGROUND: It has been shown that compared with stem cells from other sources,
umbilical cord-derived mesenchymal stem cells have lower immunogenicity, and
their application has significant effect in rats with myocardial infarction.
OBJECTIVE: To systematically evaluate the
effects of umbilical cord-derived mesenchymal stem cells on cardiac function of
rats with myocardial infarction.
METHODS: PubMed, Cochrane, Embase, CBM, CNKI,
WanFang, VIP and CJD databases were retrieved for the literature concerning
umbilical cord-derived mesenchymal stem cells for treating rats with myocardial
infarction published before June 2019. Two researchers independently completed
literature screening, data extraction and methodological quality evaluation
according to the inclusion criteria. Meta-analysis was conducted on Stata 14.0.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: A total of 9 articles
were included, involving 216 rats. Meta-analysis showed that: (1) Umbilical
cord-derived mesenchymal stem cells significantly increased the left
ventricular ejection fraction after myocardial infarction in rats [95%
confidence interval (CI) (3.16,
3.76), P < 0.001]. (2) Umbilical
cord-derived mesenchymal stem cells significantly increased the left
ventricular short axis shortening rate after myocardial infarction in rats [95%CI (0.18, 0.54), P < 0.001]. (3) Umbilical cord-derived mesenchymal stem cells
significantly shortened the left ventricular end-diastolic internal diameter
[95%CI (-1.90, -0.99), P=0.042] and left
ventricular end-systolic internal diameter [95%CI (-6.56,
-4.65), P < 0.001]. (4) Umbilical
cord-derived mesenchymal stem cells significantly improved the left ventricular
end-diastolic volume [95%CI (-2.01, -1.11), P < 0.001] and left ventricular end-systolic
volume [95%CI (-3.44, -2.17), P < 0.001]. In summary, umbilical
cord-derived mesenchymal stem cell transplantation is effective and safe in the
treatment of myocardial infarction in rats. Due to the limitation of the
quality of the included literature, the above conclusions need to be validated
by high-quality and large-sample randomized controlled trials.