title: Schwann Cells Transplantation Improves Locomotor Recovery in Rat Models with Spinal Cord Injury: a Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Schwann cells (SCs) which were demonstrated to be responsible for axonal myelination and ensheathing are widely studied and commonly used for cell transplantation to treat spinal cord injury (SCI). We performed this meta-analysis to summarize the effects of SCs versus controls for locomotor recovery in rat models of traumatic SCI.
  
  
  METHODS
  Studies of the BBB scores after transplantation of SCs were searched out from Pubmed, Cochrane Library Medline databases and analyzed by Review Manager 5.2.5.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Thirteen randomized controlled animal trials were selected with 283 rats enrolled. The studies were divided to different subgroups by different models of SCI, different cell doses for transplantation, different sources of SCs and different transplantation ways. The pooled results of this meta-analysis suggested that SCs transplantation cannot significantly improve the locomotor recovery at a short time after intervention (1 week after transplantation) in both impacted and hemi-sected SCI models. However, at a longer time after intervention (3, 5-7 and over 8 weeks after transplantation), significant improvement of BBB score emerged in SCs groups compared with control groups. Subgroup analyses revealed that SCs transplantation can significantly promote locomotor recovery regardless of in high or low doses of cells, from different sources (isolated from sciatic nerves or differentiated from bone marrow stromal cells(BMSCs)) and with or without scaffolding.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  SCs seem to demonstrate substantial beneficial effects on locomotor recovery in a widely-used animal models of SCI.
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Yingbin
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ge
authors.forename: Jian
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.forename: Jinxia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yuan
authors.forename: Dawei
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Ge
authors.forename: Hongtao
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Hongxiu
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Xiaojian
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Cao
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D017690:Cell Transplantation; D008124:Locomotion; D051381:Rats; D012583:Schwann Cells / Q000637:transplantation*; D013119:Spinal Cord Injuries / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000628:therapy*