SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article
Front. Med.
Sec. Nephrology
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmed.2025.1601900
This article is part of the Research TopicModifiable Risk Factors for Chronic Kidney Disease ProgressionView all 6 articles
Efficacy of Stem Cell Therapy for Diabetic Kidney Disease: a Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
Provisionally accepted
- Gannan Medical University, Ganzhou, China
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Background/Objectives: Animal studies have demonstrated the ability of stem cell therapy (SCT) to treat diabetic kidney disease (DKD). However, the efficacy of SCT in patients with DKD remain unclear. This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to investigate the efficacy of SCT in patients with DKD. Methods: A comprehensive and systematic literature search was conducted using PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, and Web of Science to identify articles on SCT for DKD published up to March 2024. RevMan V.5.4 software was used for statistical analysis. Results: We identified four studies that included 90 participants, 53 (58%) of whom underwent SCT. SCT improved estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) (mean difference [MD] = 0.41, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.08-0.74; p = 0.02), serum creatinine (SCr) reduction (standardized MD = -0.65, 95%CI: -1.19 to -0.1, p = 0.02), and microalbuminuria (MAU) (MD = -32.10, 95% CI: -55.26-8.94; p = 0.007) compared to the control group, but did not improve urine microalbumin/creatinine ratio (UACR) (MD = -63.36, 95% CI:-194.52-67.79, p = 0.56) or blood sugar (MD = 0.49, 95% CI: 4.16-2.01, p = 0.49). Adverse events (AEs) were common (67 events in 60 SCT subjects vs 35 in 28 controls), with urinary system AEs occurring exclusively in the SCT group and nervous system AEs markedly higher .In addition, the incidence of AEs was significantly high in both groups (risk ratio = 0.93; 95% CI: 0.74-1.17; p = 0.54); there was no significant difference regarding I 2 = 0%). Conclusions: SCT can effectively improve eGFR and SCr levels by lowering the MAU but cannot improve UACR and blood sugar levels.
Keywords: Stem Cells, diabetic nephropathy, Clinical Trial, Meta-analysis, Systematic review, randomized controlled trials
Received: 28 Mar 2025; Accepted: 23 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Du, Xie, Yuan, Luo, Cao, Li, Yuan and Li. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Wei Li, Gannan Medical University, Ganzhou, China
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