AIM To systematically evaluate the effectiveness of stem cell derived exosomes in the treatment of animal models of myocardial infarction.

METHODS Using the Pubmed and SinoMed as examples respectively for the databases in English or Chinese, and Medical Subject Heading (MeSH)’s strategy used for the search was (exosomes) AND (stem cells) AND (myocardial infarction) respectively in English and Chinese. The databases of PubMed and SinoMed were searched by computer to collect the relevant literature on the treatment of rat myocardial infarction model with stem cell derived exosomes. Finally, 10 articles were included for Meta-analysis. First, the heterogeneity test was performed, then the sensitivity analysis was performed by eliminating the methods of individual studies one by one, and finally the publication bias was detected by funnel chart.

RESULTS A total of 10 animal experimental literatures were included, with 179 rats. Of the 179 rats, 97 rats in the exogenous group received cell transplantation treatment and 82 rats in the control group received blank control, normal saline or PBS treatment. The results of Meta-analysis showed that Exosomes’ therapy significantly increased left ventricular ejection fraction (SMD=13.91, 95% CI: 8.90～18.91, P<0.01), left ventricular short axis contraction rate (SMD=7.52, 95% CI: 5.29～9.76, P<0.01) and reduced myocardial infarction area (SMD=−15.15, 95% CI: −17.90～−12.40, P<0.01) in rats with myocardial infarction.

CONCLUSION The results show that the treatment of stem cell derived exosomes could significantly improve the cardiac functions after myocardial infarction in rats.