Fig. 7: The combined approach protects the myocardium from ischemic injury and reduces cardiac fibrosis.

a Representative immunostaining images of myocardium stained with cTnT (green) and DAPI (blue) at 8 weeks after cell treatment and quantification of the number of cTnT-positive cardiomyocytes. SDF-eMSCs labeled with DiI within the cardiac patch (red) n = 5. *p < 0.05. Scale bar: 300 µm. b Representative images of Masson’s trichrome staining using heart tissues harvested 8 weeks after cell treatment. c, d Quantification summary of a percentage of fibrosis and viable myocardium. n = 5. *p < 0.05. Scale bars: 2000 µm.