Figure 2.

Ad-HGF treatment improved the cardiac remodeling by upregulating autophagy and necroptosis and inhibiting apoptosis after MI. A. Representative western blot images of heart homogenates with antibodies to HGF, p-Met, Met, and GAPDH are shown. The protein extraction was from sham, MI+Ad-null and MI+Ad-HGF rats after one week of MI. The bar graph shows the quantitative analysis of the western blot results. Data are expressed as mean ± SD, n=4, *P<0.05. B. Representative M-mode echocardiograms of SD rats before and after MI. The line charts shows the analysis of left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) and left ventricular fractional shortening (LVFS) in SD rats at 1 week and 4 week after MI, respectively. Data are expressed as mean ± SD, n=8 per group, *P<0.05. C. Representative images of four consecutive myocardial slices stained with Masson’s trichrome in sham, MI+Ad-null and MI+Ad-HGF groups after 4 weeks of MI are shown. The bar graph shows the quantitative analysis of the LV scar size. Data are shown as mean ± SD, n=4, *P<0.05. D. Representative immunofluorescent images of staining with ProteoStat® aggresome detection reagent (red), p62/SQSTM1 (green) and DAPI (blue) in sham, MI+Ad-null and MI+Ad-HGF groups after 4 weeks of MI are shown. The bar graph shows the quantitative analysis of the results. Data are represented as mean ± SD, n=4, *P<0.05. E-G. Western blot analysis of Beclin-1, LC3-I, LC3-II, p62, cleaved caspase 3, caspase 3, Bax, Bcl-2, Bcl-xL, RIP1, RIP3 and GAPDH levels in the sham, MI+Ad-null and MI+Ad-HGF groups, respectively. Protein expression was quantified with reference to GAPDH. The bar graph shows the quantitative analysis of the western blot results. Data are represented as mean ± SD, n=3, *P<0.05.