Chen 2014.

Methods	Single‐blind, randomized, controlled clinical trial
Participants	30 participants with chronic MCA infarction and neurological deficits of intermediate severity Treatment 15, control 15 Treated between 6 months and 5 years from stroke onset
Interventions	Subcutaneous granulocyte‐colony stimulating factor injections (15 μg/kg/day) for 5 consecutive days, followed by stereotaxic implantation of autologous 3 to 8 million CD34+ immunosorted peripheral blood stem cells
Outcomes	Improvements in stroke scales (NIHSS, European Stroke Scale, and European Stroke Scale Motor Subscale) and functional outcomes measure (mRS) from baseline to the end of the 12‐month follow‐up
Notes	None
Risk of bias
Bias	Authors' judgement	Support for judgement
Random sequence generation (selection bias)	Low risk	Participants were assigned randomly (1:1) via SAS software to either the peripheral blood stem cells or the control groups
Allocation concealment (selection bias)	Low risk	Participants were correctly allocated
Blinding of participants and personnel (performance bias) All outcomes	High risk	Experimental procedures (such as stereotaxic implantation) were not blinded
Blinding of outcome assessment (detection bias) All outcomes	Low risk	All clinical information was assessed by clinician raters in a single‐blinded fashion (at clinical evaluation, each participant wore a hat to mask the surgical scar on their skull)
Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias) All outcomes	Low risk	Outcome data were complete
Selective reporting (reporting bias)	Low risk	Primary outcomes listed in published protocols were adequately reported in the results
Other bias	Low risk	Granulocyte‐colony stimulating factor may be neuroprotective in the acute phase, but this trial included participants treated between 6 months and 5 years from stroke onset