Fig. 6.

EC Ep4 deletion impairs microcirculation and increases infarct size in MI/R. Expression of Ep4 was examined by RT-PCR in the mouse lung ECs isolated from tamoxifen treated Ep4 conditional KO mice (cKO) and littermate controls (a). Hearts were isolated 24 h after MI/R, and tissue sections were stained for EP4 (green), vWF (an EC marker, red) and nuclei (DAPI, blue). Representative result from three studies was shown (b). Representative TTC stained sections of the Evans blue perfused hearts were shown (c). Infarct size (d) and AAR (e) were quantified. Levels of ATP in the injured myocardium 24 h post IR were measured (f). Cardiac blood perfusion during I/R was measured by laser Doppler flow, and representative images were shown above the flow plot (g). Tissue expression of MPO was stained (h) and the number of MPO-positive cells was analyzed (i). Heart tissue levels of MPO in the ischemic area were quantified (j). Unpaired Student’s t test (a, n = 3; d, e, n = 9, 8; f, n = 11, 12; i, n = 6; j, n = 7). Two-way ANOVA with Turkey’s tests (g, n = 15, 7). Scale bar is 50 μm. Anatomy of vascular structure is labeled in b: arrows denote vessel wall, and ‘L’ denotes lumen. Error bar indicates SEM