Fig. 2.

Western blot analysis of native standard proteins and degradation products in rats (n = 5) (a-c) and human cases (H1-H3) (d-f). Tropomyosin (TPM) (a) depicted no qualitative change of the characteristic double-band in any of the investigated samples and time points in rats. Desmin (DES) (b) and vinculin (VCL) (c) showed complete degradation of native bands (native DES and meta-VCL) as well as appearance of degradation products with increasing PMI (in hours postmortem, hpm). In human samples, TPM (d) depicted double bands in H1 and H2. In H3, no bands were present. Native DES bands (e) were found in H1 and H2, whereas in H3 the native band was lost. All human samples depicted characteristic DES degradation products of different molecular weights. Native VCL (f) was present in H1 and H2 and absent in H3. Meta-vinculin was only found in H1. Different sized characteristic degradation proteins were found in all human samples