Figure - PMC

Skip to main content

An official website of the United States government

Here's how you know

Here's how you know

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

View full-text article in PMC

. 2017 Aug 8;27(10):1195–1215. doi: 10.1038/cr.2017.87

Search in PMC
Search in PubMed
View in NLM Catalog
Add to search

Copyright © 2017 The Author(s)

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

PMC Copyright notice

hCT1 enhances angiogenesis and limits fibrosis during cardiac hypertrophy. (A-D) Rats were treated with hCT1 or PE for 2 weeks followed by withdrawal for 6 weeks. Capillary density was assessed by staining for CD31 (brown) and counterstaining with Hematoxylin (blue). hCT1-treated rats displayed a significant increase in CD31-positive capillaries (n = 4;**P < 0.01) at 2 weeks with reversion at 6 weeks post withdrawal; whereas PE-treated rats displayed a significant decrease at 2 weeks post treatment and 6 weeks post withdrawal (n = 4; ^*P < 0.05). Scale bar, 50 μm. (E) Primary cardiomyocytes were incubated with control serum-free medium (Ctrl, SF medium), hCT1 (0.5 nM), PE (100 μM), or PAC-1 (25 μM) for 24 h. hCT1 treatment resulted in a greater increase in vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) expression compared to PE or PAC-1. Immunofluorescence was used to detect α-actinin (red), VEGF (green), and nuclei were stained with DAPI (blue). Scale bar, 40 μm. (F) Similar procedure as in (E) above, however, conditioned medium was harvested at 24 h and expression of secreted VEGF protein was detected upon immunoblotting with anti-VEGF antibody. A significant increase in VEGF was observed in hCT1-treated samples (sets A-C) when compared to PE or Ctrl. (+), recombinant VEGF protein (40 ng) used as positive control. (#), cross-reactivity bands of antibody to components in conditioned medium. (G-J) Rats were treated as in (A) above and fibrosis/collagen was assessed using Masson's Trichrome staining (blue deposits). Rat hearts exposed to PE exhibited a significant increase in collagen/fibrosis at 2 weeks post treatment as well as 6 weeks post withdrawal (n = 4; ^***P < 0.001 and ^**P < 0.01, respectively). Scale bar, 50 μm.