Figure 1. Absence of cardiomyocyte hypertrophy in pediatric DCM.

(A) Wheat germ agglutinin (WGA) staining (red) demonstrating that pediatric donor controls and pediatric DCM specimens display similar cardiomyocyte cross-sectional area. In contrast, adult DCM patients display increased cardiomyocyte cross-sectional area compared with donor controls. Blue, DAPI (nuclei). Magnification 400×. (B) Quantification of cardiomyocyte cross-sectional area. (C) Cardiomyocyte cross-sectional area stratified by age, revealing that cardiomyocyte cross-sectional area does not differ from donor controls across pediatric groups. *P < 0.05 (Mann Whitney U test). (D) Scatter plots showing that cardiomyocyte cross-sectional area does not differ as a function of age in pediatric DCM patients. In contrast, adult DCM patients have increased cardiomyocyte cross-sectional area at all ages examined.