Figure 5.

Anti-apoptotic effects of muscone on myocardial cells. (A) TUNEL analysis of apoptotic myocardial cells from sham-operated mice, muscone treated mice and untreated mice at 3 weeks following the induciton of myocardial infarction (MI). TUNEL-positive cells appear green, DAPI-counterstained nuclei are blue. (B) Western blot analysis of Bcl-2 and Bax. GAPDH was used as an internal control. (C) Cardiomyocyte apoptotic index was significantly lower in the muscone-treated group compared with the untreated group. (D) Densitometric analysis of Bcl-2 expression normalized to GAPDH. (E) Densitometric analysis of Bax expression normalized to GAPDH. (F) Analysis of the ratio between the expression of Bcl-2 and Bax, n=3 per group. ^*P<0.05 vs. untreated group, ^**P<0.01 vs. untreated group. Sham, sham-operated group.