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.