Figure 5

Intact Bioscaffolds Attenuate Post-MI Structural Cardiac Remodeling. Representative images are shown for myocardium stained with Masson’s trichrome from the peri-infarct zone at 14-weeks post-MI for animals without scaffolds (A), neutralized scaffolds (B), or intact scaffolds (C) (blue = collagen, pink = cytoplasm). (D) We performed histological analysis to quantify interstitial fibrosis in the peri-infarct zone myocardium for no scaffold (N = 9), neutralized scaffold (N = 9), and intact scaffold (N = 7) groups. Images are shown at 200x magnification (scale bar = 480 μm). We assessed statistical significance using one-way ANOVA. (E) We performed pressure-volume loop analysis to assess left ventricular end-diastolic volumes (LVEDV) of no scaffold (N = 12), neutralized scaffolds (N = 15), and intact scaffolds (N = 12). We assessed statistical significance by one-way ANOVA. Box plots represent median, and interquartile range. Whiskers represent maximum and minimum values. (F) We assessed cardiac structure using serial echocardiography to measure anterior wall thickness in no scaffold, neutralized scaffold, and intact scaffold treated animals up to 14 weeks after myocardial infarction (N = 15/group). We show a significant difference in anterior wall thickness by time (P = 0.004), treatment (P = 0.0003), and interaction (P = 0.002). We assessed statistical significance using repeated measures two-way ANOVA. Values are reported as mean ± SD.