Fig 3. AAV-mediated overexpression of Cytl1 induces CF.

Control virus or AAV-Cytl1 (5 × 10¹⁰ viral genome) was injected into the tail vein of WT mice, and the phenotype of the heart was examined after 8 wks. (A) Picrosirius staining of heart cross-sections from WT mice injected with control virus or AAV-Cytl. Fibrotic areas in the interstitial and perivascular areas were quantified using MetaMorph software (right panels). (B) Quantification of the mRNA levels of several fibrotic markers (TGF-β2, collagen 1 and TNF-α) by qRT-PCR. (C) Activation of the TGF-β signaling pathway was investigated by western blotting. GAPDH served as the loading control. n = 3–5 for each experimental group. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01.