Clinical efficacy of stem-cell therapy on diabetes mellitus: A systematic review and meta-analysis

This systematic literature review aims to compare the efficacy and safety of traditional and stem cell (SC) therapies for type 1 (T1DM) and type 2 (T2DM) diabetes mellitus patients.

The PubMed, SciELO, BVS, and Medline databases were searched, and 38 original articles were selected, which included 647 control cases and 654 treatments with three-, six- and twelve-month follow-ups of T1DM and T2DM patients. The efficacy of stem cell therapy was validated by comparing laboratory parameters such as fasting blood glucose and C-peptide levels before and after treatment. The REML model was chosen for random effects, and the inverse of variance was used for fixed effects. The statistical analysis was carried out using Bioestat 5.0 and STATA 16.0 software.

All SC treatments significantly reduced the need for insulin following six and twelve months of treatment, whereas there was no significant decrease after three months. Fasting blood glucose and glycosylated hemoglobin levels were significantly reduced in all follow-ups with SC. In addition, SC treatment caused a significant increase in C-peptide levels. Bone marrow hematopoietic stem cell therapy produced better results than the conventional drug treatment for diabetes mellitus (semagglutide).

The results with SC were significantly better, regardless of the follow-up period. Studies have proven cell therapy to be beneficial, safe, and effective.