Figure 6. Phosphorylated Smad2 and TAK1 after TAC procedure in control and afadin cKO mice.
(a and c) Immunostaining of activated (phosphorylated) Smad2 (a) and TAK1 (c) in the control and afadin cKO hearts during pressure overload challenge. Images below the respective phospho-TAK1 photos showing magnification of depicted rectangular areas. Wheat germ agglutinin (WGA: red) staining for the cell membranes, and DAPI (blue) staining for the nuclei. Arrowheads: disturbed myocardial structure. (b and d) Summary graphs for percentage of phospho-Smad2-positive nuclear area (b) and phopsho-TAK1-positive cytosolic area (d), which were estimated per 1000 nuclei and cells in each group. *p < 0.05.