STAT3 and renal fibrosis: Matsui et al. [116] injected BM-MSCs through the renal artery in a UUO rat model, and the results indicated that BM-MSCs could decrease Col-I, Col-III, fibronectin, α-SMA, p-STAT3, MMP-9, TIMP-1, and renal fibrosis and increase TIMP-1/MMP-9 (Table 1).