- Control group 1 (C1): Dorsal subcutaneous injection of distilled water (0.1 mL/100 g body weight) for 21 days, followed by sacrifice by decapitation.
- Control group 2 (C2): Dorsal subcutaneous injection of distilled water (0.1 mL/100 g body weight) for 14 days, followed by no intervention for 4 weeks.
- Hypoxic group (HP group): Subcutaneous injection of sodium nitrite (NaNO2) (35 mg/kg/d; Sigma St. Louis, MO, USA, as a pure white powder (assay ≥ 99%) (Bhanumathy et al., 2010) for 21 days, to induce chemical hypoxia
- N-2wR group: Subcutaneous injection of NaNO2 (35 mg/kg/d) for 15 days, followed by no intervention for 28 days.
- N-3wR group: Subcutaneous injection of NaNO2 (35 mg/kg/d) for 21 days, followed by no intervention for 21 days.
- N-2wSC group: Subcutaneous injection of NaNO2 (35 mg/kg/d) for 15 days, followed by one intravenous injection of MSCs via the tail vein (2 × 106 cells/rat) and no injection for 28 days.
- N-3wSC group: Subcutaneous injection of NaNO2 (35 mg/kg/d) for 15 days, followed by one intravenous injection of MSCs (2 × 106 cells/rat), 7-day NaNO2 injection, and 21-day no intervention.
The total time for the experiment was 3 weeks for the C1 and HP groups, and 6 weeks for the rest of the groups as shown in