Figure 4
cDKO mice showed excessive apoptosis of cardiomyocytes. (a) TUNEL staining (red) of hearts from 4-week-old control (Meox2+/+PLCδ1fl/−PLCδ3+/−) and cDKO mice. Hoechst (blue) was used for nuclear staining. The arrowheads indicate TUNEL-positive cells. The right-hand panels are overlay images of bright field and fluorescent images. Scale bar, 50 μm. (b) Population of TUNEL-positive cells in the hearts of 4-week-old control (Meox2+/+PLCδ1fl/−PLCδ3+/−) and cDKO mice. Mean+S.E.M. (control, n=4; cDKO, n=3). (c) mRNA expression of the proapoptotic gene Bax in the hearts of control (Meox2+/+PLCδ1fl/−PLCδ3−/−, n=2; Meox2cre/+PLCfl/−PLCδ3+/−, n=2; Meox2+/+PLCδ1fl/−PLCδ3+/− n=3) and cDKO mice at 4 weeks of age. The results are listed in arbitrary units (expression in control mice=1). Mean+S.E.M. (control, n=7; cDKO, n=4). Statistical significance was assessed using Student’s t-test. *P<0.05 and **P<0.01. (d) Immunoblotting of Bax, Bad, Bcl-2, and GAPDH in Meox2+/+PLCδ1fl/−PLCδ3+/− (hetero), Meox2cre/+PLCfl/−PLCδ3+/− (PLCδ1KO), Meox2+/+PLCδ1fl/−PLCδ3−/− (PLCδ3KO), and Meox2cre/+PLCδ1fl/−PLCδ3−/− (cDKO) hearts at 8 weeks of age
