Figure 3
Effect of genotype and treatment on cardiomyocyte diameter, caspase-3 activity and fibrosis depending on gender.
Wildtype and knockout animals were either untreated or treated with aldosterone/NaCl for 28 days. Afterwards the animals were sacrificed and the hearts were either partially embedded with paraffin or snap frozen for further analysis. Cardiomyocyte diameter (a, d) was determined in haematoxylin/eosin stained slices. At least 100 cardiomyocytes were analysed per mouse. Cardiac fibrosis was determined in picro sirius red stained, paraffin embedded heart sections as % red stained area per field in male (b) and female (e) animals. Cardiac caspase-3 activity was determined from snap frozen cardiac homogenates in male (c) and female (f) animals. Data are given as mean ± SEM, * p<0.05 compared to respective wildtype, # p<0.05 compared to respective control. N = 9–12 animals/group.
