Myocardial tissue injury and neutrophil infiltration at 24 hours of
reperfusion. (A) Representative H&E micrographs of heart grafts tissue
sections. Tissue sections from Mitochondria heart grafts show significantly less
severe necrosis and inflammatory cells infiltration as compared to Vehicle heart
grafts. Sham heart grafts show only minimal myocardial injury and inflammatory
cells infiltration. Scale bars, 100 μm. (B) Representative micrographs of
tissue sections from heart grafts stained for myeloperoxidase content to
quantify neutrophil infiltration. Tissue sections from Mitochondria heart grafts
show decreased neutrophil infiltration as compared to Vehicle heart grafts.
Tissue sections from Sham heart grafts show no neutrophil infiltration. Scale
bars, 100 μm. (C) Representative transmission electron micrographs.
Transmission electron microscopy analysis shows similar profile in Mitochondria
and Sham heart grafts, with no observed contraction bands, while Vehicle heat
grafts show contraction bands indicating myocardial injury. Scale bars, 1
μm. (D) Area of necrosis and inflammatory cells infiltration in the
entire transversal tissue sections of Vehicle, Mitochondria and Sham heart
grafts. Results show significantly less necrosis and inflammatory cells
infiltration in Mitochondria heart grafts as compared to Vehicle. (E) Neutrophil
count determined by positive myeloperoxidase staining counted in 5 random (20x)
visual fields per tissue section. Results show significantly lower neutrophil
infiltration in Mitochondria heart grafts as compared to Vehicle. All values are
mean ± SEM. *P < 0.05 vs. Sham. **P < 0.05 vs. Vehicle. n =
8 for Mitochondria, 9 for Vehicle, 4 for Sham.