Fig. 1

MSCs improved glucose and lipid metabolism of DCM rats. DCM rats were fed high-fat diet (HFD) for 8 weeks and intraperitoneally injected with a single dose of 25 mg/kg STZ. After 4 weeks’ observation and determination, MSCs were infused into DCM rats via tail vein every 2 weeks and 4 times in total (a). During the research, fasting blood glucose was detected at the beginning, 12 weeks, within 48 h after every MSC infusion, and at 20 weeks (b). n = 6, **P < 0.005 vs. DCM group. At the end of the experiment, serum insulin (c), total cholesterol (d), and triglyceride (e) in normal, DCM, and MSC-treated rats were determined, respectively. n = 6, **P < 0.005, ***P < 0.0005, ****P < 0.0001