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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2013 Jul 17.
Published in final edited form as: Nature. 2012 Dec 5;493(7432):433–436. doi: 10.1038/nature11682

Figure 4. Myocardial injury stimulates division of pre-existing cardiomyocytes.

Figure 4

a) Myocardial infarction (MI) leads to extensive DNA synthesis within and adjacent to scar (arrows). MerCreMer+/ZEG+ mice were treated for 2 wks with 4OH-tamoxifen to induce cardiomyocyte-specific GFP expression before MI or sham surgery, then 15N-thymidine administered continuously for 8wks. Mosaics of 70 60×60μm MIMS tiles. Trichrome stained adjacent section (far right) shows scar. Scale bars = 90μm.

b) 15N-thymidine labeled cardiomyocyte nucleus (white arrows) from MI border region. Immunofluorescent staining demonstrates that the cardiomyocyte is GFP+. Scale bars = 10 μm.

c) Mean % 15N+ cardiomyocyte nuclei after MI (n=4) in the scar border region compared to sham operated mice (n=3). Mean% ± S.E.M.