Fig. 7
From: Gucy1α1 specifically marks kidney, heart, lung and liver fibroblasts
Gucy1α1 labels cardiac fibroblasts in the MI model of heart fibrosis. (A) Schematic of the MI progression model experimental timeline. (B and C) Western blotting showing Gucy1α1, Pdgfrβ, αSma and Vim expression changes over the course of MI. Representative bands (B) and quantification (C) of Gucy1α1, Pdgfrβ, αSma and Vim signal normalized to Gapdh. N = 3–4 per group, unpaired 2-tailed t-test, P *≤0.05, **≤0.01, ***≤0.001, ****≤0.0001 compared to the control. Note that all fibrosis markers peaked at Day 3–7 post-MI. (D) Picrosirius Red staining demonstrating mature scar formation in the myocardial wall at MI Day 28 compared to the control heart. Whole heart image, original magnification, ×4, 1.48 μm/px zoom, scale 1000 μm and ×20 0.30 μm/px zoom, scale 100 μm (highlighted with black frames). (E) IF revealing Gucy1α1 expression in the normal and fibrotic heart. Gucy1α1 (magenta), Pdgfrβ (yellow), αSma (cyan), Vim (green) and DAPI (blue). Original magnification, ×60; upper panels - maximal intensity projection from a Z-stack, 0.28 μm/px Nyquist resolution, scale 50 μm; lower panels − 0.05 μm/px Nyquist zoom, scale 10 μm (highlighted with white frames). Note that in the normal heart Gucy1α1 exhibits episodic expression in Pdgfrβ-positive fibroblasts (white arrow). MI caused robust Gucy1α1 elevation and colocalization with Pdgfrβ- (white arrows), αSma- (cyan arrow) and Vim-positive (green arrow) areas. Data in scatter plots is presented as mean ± SD.
