Fig. 7
From: Augmentation of myocardial If dysregulates calcium homeostasis and causes adverse cardiac remodeling
Assessment of myocardial apoptosis. a Representative TUNEL assay for detection of fragmented nuclear DNA (green) and nuclear counterstaining (red) in cryosections of right ventricles from wild type (left) and HCN4tg/wt (right) mice (2 months of age). b Quantification of TUNEL-positive nuclei in right (RV) and left (LV) ventricular tissue from wild type and HCN4tg/wt mice revealed a significant increase in the number of cells with fragmented nuclear DNA in both ventricles of transgenic animals (n = 6 animals/group; ***P < 0.001; unpaired t-test). c Genes with transcriptional changes > 1.5 fold in HCN4tg/wt compared to wild type hearts (values are normalized to corresponding wild type = 1.0) using the Mouse Apoptosis RT2 Profiler PCR Array (SABioscience). Pronounced transcriptional changes were observed in the apoptosis effector gene caspase-3 (for additional data, please refer to Supplementary Fig. 3). d qRT-PCR transcription analysis of the caspase 3 (Casp3), tissue transglutaminase (tTG), and calpain 1 (Capn1) genes in ventricles of HCN4tg/wt mice normalized to corresponding wild type littermates (wt = 1.0; n = 6 animals/group; ***P < 0.001; unpaired t-test). e Immunohistochemical detection of caspase-3 activity (brown) in representative sections of right ventricular tissue from wild type (left) and HCN4tg/wt (right) mice. f Quantitative analysis shows proportion of cells positive for active caspase-3 in right and left ventricular tissue from wild type and HCN4tg/wt mice (n = 6 animals/group; ***P < 0.001; unpaired t-test). Data are shown as mean ± s.e.m. Source data are provided as a Source data file
