Animal and drug administration
Pregnant (16-day-old), neonatal (3-day-old), or 4-week-old Sprague Dawley rats were purchased from the Jilin University Experimental Animal Center (Changchun, China), which were used for the isolation of primary cells such as cardiomyocytes, cortical neurons, or bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs). Five-week-old Kunming mice were purchased from Liaoning Changsheng Biotechnology Co., Ltd (Benxi, China). All animal procedures were performed in accordance with the guidelines approved by the Animal Ethics Committee of Changchun University of Chinese Medicine. After acclimatization under temperature of 23-25°C and 60%-70% humidity with 12 h-day/night cycle, the mice were randomly divided into two groups as control (sterilized distilled water) and GS (100 mg/kg), which were orally administered every day for 3 weeks. General health, food/water intake, and body weight of all mice with free access to food and water were monitored and recorded every day. At the end of the experiment, mice were euthanatized to collect brain and heart tissues for further analysis.