Fig. 5

Forest plot of DU changes before and after treatment with MSCs. Four studies showed after treatment with MSCs, DU numbers in SSc patients were significantly lower than pretreatment at 6 months (P < 0.05). No significant heterogeneity was observed, and a fixed-effects model was used for statistical analysis. In the plane rectangular coordinate system, the forest plot takes a vertical invalid line (scale of abscissa is 1) as the center, describes the effect quantity and 95% CI of each study by using multiple line segments parallel to the horizontal axis, and describes the effect quantity and confidence interval of multiple studies by using a diamond. However, the confidence interval was large, which might due to small sample size. DU, digital ulcer; MSCs, mesenchymal stem cells; CI, confidence interval