Fig. 8.

Expression and localization of versican (VCAN) in patients with dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM). (A) Relative mRNA expression of VCAN, (B) collagen I alpha 2 (COL1A2), (C) collagen III alpha 1 (COL3A1) in left ventricular tissue from patients with DCM (n = 11) compared to control hearts (Control, n = 4). (D) Correlation (R²) between relative mRNA expression of VCAN and COL1A2, and (E) COL3A1 in DCM. (F) mRNA expression of versican isoforms V0, V1, V2, V3 in DCM (n = 11) and Control (n = 4). The values are relative to average of total versican expression in control hearts. (G) Representative confocal images of versican (red) from Control left ventricle tissue, and DCM with (H) interstitial, (I) replacement and (J) perivascular fibrosis. (K) Quantification of versican protein level in DCM (n = 10) versus Control (n = 4) from the confocal images. Positively stained area for versican was normalized to wheat germ agglutinin (WGA, green) stain for cardiomyocyte sarcolemma and extracellular matrix. Values relative to the average of Control are reported. Data points in the bar graph (K) represent the average value from n = 8 images per sample. DAPI stain for the nuclei (blue). White arrows show positive staining for versican and yellow color shows colocalization at fibrotic regions. Scale bar = 15 μm. Bar graph with scatter plot shows mean ± SD. Welch’s t-test (A, B, C, F), Student’s t-test (K), and Pearson correlation coefficient (D, E) were used for statistical analysis. P values < 0.05 were considered statistically significant. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01 Control vs. DCM. (For interpretation of the references to color in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)