Metabolic fitness is indispensable for BM-MSCs’ therapeutic ability in DSS-induced colitis. (A) Trypan blue dye exclusion assay to measure the viability of fresh, postthawed or heat-inactivated BM-MSCs. (B) Schematic of the experimental setup for results presented in panels C-F. (G) Schematic of the experimental setup for results indicated in panels H-K (mice, N = 5 per test group). Development of colitis was examined by measuring body weight change relative to the initial body weight at day 0 (C,H), disease activity index (D,I), H&E staining of colon (E,J), and histological score (F,K). (E,J) Bars represent 100 μm. Statistical analysis was assessed by Student t test (E,J), 1-way ANOVA (Tukey test) (A), and 2-way ANOVA (Tukey test) for all other experiments. **P < .01, ***P < .001, ****P < .0001.