Fig. 7: Tafazzin protects against apoptosis.
A Aortic root sections of wild type Apoe−/− (WT), Sm22a-Taz/Apoe−/−(Taz) and Sm22a-TazH69Q/Apoe−/− (TazH) mice after 14 weeks high fat diet stained with TUNEL (white), DAPI (blue) and SMA (green). Scale bars represent 100 μm. B Percentage of TUNEL-positive cells in aortic plaques of experimental WT, Taz and TazH mice (WT, Taz n = 11, 6 male (M), 5 female (F) mice; TazH n = 10, 6 M, 4 F; 1-way ANOVA, Bonferroni-Holm post hoc). C % of Ki67-positive cells in aortic plaques of experimental WT, Taz and TazH mice (WT n = 8, 5 M, 3 F; Taz n = 11, 6 M, 5 F; TazH n = 10, 5 M, 5 F; Kruskal Wallis, Bonferroni Holm post hoc). D QPCR for interleukin 6 (Il6), monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (Mcp1), tumour necrosis factor-a (Tnfa) and interleukin 1b (Il1b) mRNA expression in aortas of experimental mice. Expression is shown relative to wild type, normalised to B2m housekeeping gene (WT n = 8, 5 M, 3 F; Taz n = 7, 3 M, 4 F; TazH n = 10, 5 M, 5 F; Kruskal-Wallis, Bonferroni-Holm post hoc). E, F: E Percentage of annexin V-positive cells after tert-butyl hydrogen peroxide treatment and (F) percentage EdU-positive cells in VSMCs from wild type (WT), Sm22a-Taz (Taz) and Sm22a-TazH69Q (TazH) mice (n = 4, 2 M, 2 F, 1-way ANOVA, Bonferroni-Holm post hoc). G QPCR for Tnfa mRNA expression in WT, Taz and TazH VSMCs. Expression is shown relative to wild type, normalised to B2m housekeeping gene (WT, TazH n = 5, 2 M, 3 F; Taz n = 6, 3 M, 3 F; Kruskal-Wallis, Bonferroni-Holm post hoc). For (B–D) n = number of mice per group; for (E–G) n = number of VSMC isolates per group. Data are shown as mean ± SEM with multiplicity adjusted p- values. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.
