Figure 7. Paracrine senescence response of Bmi1-related DCM does not transmit to healthy mice.

(a) Parabiotic pairings; no-DCM as Bmi1^fl mice and DCM^high as Bmi1^fl/fl;αMHC-Cre mice. Comparisons were always made with littermate pairs (no-DCM to no-DCM or DCM^high to DCM^high). (b) The gross cardiac phenotype of 12-week-old mice after 4 weeks of parabiosis as indicated. Representative views are shown of H&E-stained cross-sections at the midventricle (bars, 1 mm), Masson’s trichrome staining of left ventricle to detect fibrosis (bars, 40 μm), and WGA staining to outline cardiomyocites (bars, 10 μm). (c–e) HW/BW ratio (c), myocyte cross-sectional area (d) and fractional shortening (e) after 4 weeks of parabiosis as indicated. Data are means±s.d.; n=8 mice per group (*P<0.05; Student’s t-test).