The Optimal Intervention Time of Bone Marrow Mesenchymal Stem Cells in Ameliorating Cardiac Fibrosis Induced by Viral Myocarditis: A Randomized Controlled Trial in Mice

Figure 3

(a–f) Myocardial tissue collagen (blue) fiber staining results (Masson’s trichrome staining, ×200, scale bar = 100 μm). (a) Control group. Histological findings of myocardial tissues in 4 weeks after PBS intraperitoneal injection. (b) VMC, the myocarditis group. Histological findings of myocardial tissues within 4 weeks after CVB3 intraperitoneal injection. (c–f) The BMSCs treatment subgroups. Histological findings of myocardial tissues within 4 weeks after CVB3 intraperitoneal injection. Mice in the VMC1d + BMSCs, VMC3d + BMSCs, VMC1w + BMSCs, and VMC2w + BMSCs subgroups were injected with BMSCs (1 × 10⁶ cells of each mouse with 100ul PBS) through their tail vein on the 1st day, 3rd day, 1st week, and 2nd week, respectively, after they were infected by CVB3.

(a) Control

(b) VMC

(c) VMC1d + BMSCs

(d) VMC3d + BMSCs

(e) VMC1w + BMSCs

(f) VMC2w + BMSCs