Insulin-like growth factor-1 short-period therapy improves cardiomyopathy stimulating cardiac progenitor cells survival in obese mice.

•One week of IGF-1 therapy improves metabolic and biometric profile of obese mice.•One week of IGF-1 therapy reverses cardiomyopathy process in obese mice.•IGF-1 therapy improves CPC survival via Akt signaling pathway upregulation.•IGF-1 therapy stimulates new cardiomyocytes formation in obese mice.