Fig. 6.

Versican (VCAN) accumulates in perivascular regions, and in areas of replacement and interstitial fibrosis in aortic banded hearts. (A, B) Representative confocal images of versican (red), and quantification (normalized to perimeter of the vessel, and relative to respective Control) in the cardiac perivascular region of mice after sham (Control, white bar, n = 6) and aortic banding operations (AB, grey bar, n = 6) at day 3, 14 and 56. The white arrows show staining for versican in the tunica adventitia of the vessels, yellow arrows show versican in the surrounding interstitium. (C, D) Representative Masson’s trichrome stained images showing perivascular fibrosis, and quantification (fibrotic area normalized to perimeter of vessel, and relative to respective Control) of Control (white bar, n = 6) and AB hearts (grey bar, n = 6) at day 3, 14 and 56. The yellow arrows show progression of perivascular fibrosis into the surrounding interstitium after aortic banding. Scale bar = 35 μm. (E-G) Representative confocal images of versican and Masson’s trichrome stained images from Control and AB hearts after 56 days showing (F) replacement and (G) interstitial fibrosis. Wheat germ agglutinin (WGA, green) stain for the cardiomyocyte sarcolemma and extracellular matrix, versican (red), and DAPI stain for the nuclei (blue). The white arrows show positive staining for versican and yellow color shows colocalization at fibrotic regions. Scale bar = 15 μm for confocal images, 20 μm for Masson’s trichrome stained images. Data represent mean ± SD. Repeated measures two-way ANOVA with Bonferroni’s multiple comparisons test was used for statistical analysis. P values < 0.05 were considered statistically significant. *P < 0.05 Control vs. AB, ^‡P < 0.05 AB vs. day 3 post AB. (For interpretation of the references to color in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)