Abstract: Objective To review the effect and safety of stem cell therapy in treatment of patients with end-stage
liver diseases systematicly. Methods Articles were searched from the Cochrane Database of Controlled Trials
Register (CCTR), PubMed, EMBASE, the Chinese Biomedical Database (CBM), CNKI, Chinese Scientific
and Technological Journal Database (VIP database) and Wanfang Database. Quality assessment and data
extraction were conducted by two reviewers independently, and disagreement, if any, was resolved by
discussion. Meta-analysis was performed for homogeneous studies. Results Total of 11 studies including 468
patients met the inclusion criteria were enrolled in our systematic review. Three studies were grouped by a
randomly number count and performed blindly, other eight studies did not describe the detail randomized methods. Two studies performed the envelope allocation methods, other studies did not enforce allocation
concealment and none of the trials performed blinding. Subgroup analysis were conducted based on the
indexes measured and interventions: ① In terms of reducing Meld, the stem cell therapy group was more
effective than the control group after treating for 1 month, 3 months and 6 months [WMD = -1.65, 95%CI
(-2.95, -0.35); WMD = -2.54, 95%CI (-3.85, -1.23); WMD = -2.76, 95%CI (-4.11, -1.40)]. No significant
differences, however, were found after treating for 12 months [WMD = 0.20, 95%CI (-1.76, 2.16)]. ② In
terms of reducing Child-Pugh grade, the stem cell therapy group was more effective than the control group in 1
month and 6 months [WMD = -2.0, 95%CI (-2.55, -1.45); WMD = -0.90, 95%CI (-1.39, -0.41)]. However, no
significant differences were found after treating for 3 months and 12 months [WMD = 0.20, 95%CI (-1.48, 1.88);
WMD = 0.60，95%CI (-0.93，2.13)]. ③ In terms of raising serum albumin, the stem cell therapy group was more
effective than the control group in 1 month. Two studies showed that therapy group was more effective than the
control group and one study showed the opposite results when the course was 3 months, and differences
among these groups were statistically significant. When the treatment course was 6 months, therapy group
was more effective than the control group, and the differences were statistically significant. One study showed
no statistical significant difference and one study had statistically significant difference between control and
therapy groups when the treatment course was 12 months. ④ In terms of reducing serum bilirubin, the stem
cell therapy group manifested better effective than the control group when the treatment course was 1 month
and 3 months and no significant differences were noted when the course was 6 months and 12 months. ⑤ In terms
of reducing ALT, two studies showed the stem cell therapy group was more effective than the control group
and one study reported an opposite result. No statistical significance, however, were found in two groups
when the course was 3 months, 6 months and 12 months. ⑥ In terms of raising survival rate, the stem cell
therapy group was more effective than the control group when the treatment course was 10 weeks and 6
months. Conclusions Recent researches indicated that stem cell therapy in treatment of end-stage liver
disease can improve the Child score, Meld score, serum albumin, serum bilirubin, and ALT levels. In
addition, it also can relieve clinical symptoms and improve the short-term survival rate of the patients
with no seriously adverse reactions. However, the long-term curative effect and prognosis of survival
remain uncertain. More studies were needed for further investigation.