Fig. 4.

Mitochondrial morphology and function, and mTOR signaling in TAC-operated Fkbp8^−/− mice.

A, Electron microscopic analysis. Intra-mitochondrial structures are shown in the insets. Scale bars represent 2 μm in the main panels and 500 nm in the insets. B, The activities of mitochondrial complex I + III and complex II + III in mitochondrial fraction isolated from sham- and TAC-operated hearts. The average value for sham-operated Fkbp8^+/+ mice was set to 1. Values are expressed as the mean ± SEM (n = 3–4). C, Western blot analysis of mitochondrial proteins. Heart extracts were immunoblotted with the indicated antibodies. The panels show densitometric analysis. GAPDH was used as the loading control. The average value for sham-operated Fkbp8^+/+ mice was set equal to 1. Data are presented as the mean ± SEM (n = 3). D, Western blot analysis on S6 and 4E–BP1. p-S6 and t-S6 indicate phosphorylated and total S6, respectively. A higher concentration of 4E–BP1 antibody was used (high) to visualize the α-form of 4E-BP1. p-S6 to t-S6 ratios and γ-form of 4E–BP1 to total 4E-BP1 (t-4E-BP1) ratios are shown in the graphs. The average value for sham-operated Fkbp8^+/+ mice was set to 1. Data are presented as the mean ± SEM (n = 3). Open and closed bars represent sham- and TAC-operated groups, respectively. *P < 0.05 versus the corresponding sham-operated group.