Human umbilical cord blood-derived mesenchymal stem cell therapy in experimental spinal cord injury: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Figure 1 PRISMA flow diagram of the study selection process. This diagram illustrates the identification, screening, and inclusion of studies evaluating human umbilical cord blood-derived mesenchymal stem cells for experimental spinal cord injury. Electronic searches of PubMed, EMBASE, and Web of Science (from inception to September 12, 2025) identified 491 records. After removal of 111 duplicates, 380 records were screened by title and abstract, resulting in 50 records categorized as “include” or “maybe”. Of these, 6 were excluded as conference abstracts or wrong cell type, leaving 44 reports for retrieval; one report could not be retrieved, leaving 43 full-text articles that were assessed for eligibility; 37 were excluded with reasons, and six unique studies met all eligibility criteria and were included in the qualitative synthesis. An updated search of all three databases performed on August 31, 2026 identified no additional eligible studies; the diagram depicts the primary search conducted on September 12, 2025. hUCB-MSCs: Human umbilical cord blood-derived mesenchymal stem cells; SCI: Spinal cord injury.