Motor functional recovery efficacy of scaffolds with bone marrow stem cells in rat spinal cord injury: a Bayesian network meta-analysis

Study design A Bayesian network meta-analysis. Objective Spinal cord injury (SCI) can profoundly influence human health and has been linked to lifelong disability. More high-level evidence-based medical research is expected to evaluate the value of stem cells and biomaterial scaffold material therapy for SCI. Methods We performed a comprehensive search of Web of Science, Cochrane databases, Embase, and PubMed databases. 18 randomized controlled trials including both scaffolds and BMSCs were included. We performed a Bayesian network meta-analysis to compare the motor functional recovery efficacy of different scaffolds with BMSCs in rat SCI. Results In our Bayesian network meta-analysis, the motor functional recovery was found to benefit from scaffolds, BMSCs, and BMSCs combined with scaffolds, but the scaffold and BMSC groups had similar motor functional recovery efficacy, and the BMSCs combined with scaffolds group appeared to show better efficacy than BMSCs and scaffolds alone. Subgroup analysis showed that BMSCs+fibrin, BMSCs+ASC, BMSCs+gelatine, and BMSCs+collagen were the best four treatments for SCI in rat models. Conclusions These Bayesian network meta-analysis findings strongly indicated that BMSCs combined with scaffolds is more effective to improve motor functional recovery than BMSCs and scaffolds alone. The fibrin, gelatine, ASC, and collagen may be favourable scaffolds for the injured spinal cord and that scaffolds with BMSCs could be a promising option in regeneration therapy for patients with SCI.