To achieve a tension-free repair and reduce the recurrence rate of abdominal wall hernias (AWHs), various kinds of meshes have been applied in surgery. However, these meshes are reported to have problems with adhesion, infection, chronic pain and foreign body sensation. Recently, the introduction of cellular components on meshes seems to provide a new alternative to resolve these problems. This study aimed to evaluate the treatment efficacy of meshes seeded with cells (mesh-cell group) for AWHs, compared to meshes without cells (mesh group). Cochrane Library, Web of Science and PubMed were searched for studies that provided data about meshes, cells and AWHs. Twenty-six studies involving 578 animals were included. We found that the mesh-cell group could better control hernia recurrent than the mesh group (OR = 0.25, 95% CI = 0.15–0.42). Although the mesh-cell group did not reduce the incidence of adhesions (OR = 0.67, 95% CI = 0.26–1.74), it alleviated the extent of adhesions (WMD = −1.48, 95% CI = −1.86 to −1.10). In addition, the capillary density of mesh-cell group was also higher than that of mesh group (WMD = 26.27, 95% CI = 14.45–38.09). For incidence of infection, the two groups had no significant differences (OR = 0.94, 95% CI = 0.39–2.31). On the basis of our current evidence, AWHs were likely to receive a satisfied outcome in animal models when treated by meshes seeded with cells. Future studies with human trial data are needed to validate these findings.