Fig. 2. Forest plot of the number of injected BMSCs.

Red indicates significant improvement compared with the control group; blue indicates no significant improvement. In the group of BMSCs ≤5 × 10⁷, TBIL, ALB and MELD were significantly improved (p < 0.05). In the group of 5 × 10⁷ < BMSCs ≤4 × 10⁸, only MELD was significantly improved (p < 0.05). In the group of BMSCs >4 × 10⁸, ALT, TBIL, ALB and MELD were significantly improved (p < 0.05).

Abbreviations: ALB, albumin; ALT, alanine aminotransferase; BMSCs, bone marrow stem cells; F, fixed effects model; MELD, model for end-stage liver disease; Phet, p value of heterogeneity; R, random effects models; TBIL, total bilirubin.