Fig. 5.

Increased ER stress-mediated apoptosis in TAC-operated Fkbp8^−/− mice.

A, Triple staining of mouse hearts with TUNEL (green), anti-α-sarcomeric actin antibody (red) and DAPI (blue). White arrows indicate TUNEL-positive nuclei. The graph shows quantitative analysis on the number of TUNEL-positive cardiomyocytes. Data are expressed as the mean ± SEM (n = 3). Scale bar, 50 μm. B, Immunoblot analysis for caspases by indicated antibodies. The graphs show densitometric analysis for cleaved caspase-3 (n = 6) and cleaved caspase-12 (n = 4). Data are normalized by GAPDH. The average value for sham-operated Fkbp8^+/+ mice was set to 1. Data are presented as the mean ± SEM. C, Immunoblot analysis for Bax and Bcl-2 in mitochondrial fraction prepared from heart homogenates. Densitometric analysis is shown in the graphs. Data are normalized by SDHA and presented as the mean ± SEM (n = 3). D, Immunoblot analysis of ER stress markers. The graphs show densitometric analysis. The average value in 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. ^†P < 0.05 versus TAC-operated Fkbp8^+/+ mice. (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)