Fig. 2. CTRP3 overexpression represses pressure overload-induced cardiac hypertrophy.

a Representative western blot and quantification of CTRP3 levels in the heart tissue of WT mice and LV-CTRP3 mice (n = 3 mice per group). b CTRP3 serum levels in mice infected with LV-NULL or LV-CTRP3 (n = 3 mice per group). c The HW/BW ratio in animals after 4 weeks of TAC surgery (n = 5–7 mice per group). d–f LVEF, IVSd, and LVPWd, accordingly, determined by analyzing the echocardiographic images (n = 12–14 mice per group). g Representative images of the gross murine heart and sections stained with HE and WGA (n = 5–7 mice per group). h The mean cross-sectional area of cardiomyocytes from the indicated groups (n ≥ 100 cells per group). i Representative images of the murine heart sections (after 4 weeks of TAC) stained with Masson stain, arranged with the perivascular area at the top and the interstitial area at the bottom (n = 5–7 mice per group). j The LV collagen volume in different groups (n ≥ 40 fields per group). k Real-time PCR analysis for the expression of genes encoding the hypertrophic markers α-MHC, β-MHC, ANP, BNP, Acta-1, IL-6, and Rcan1.4, and the fibrotic markers TGF-β1, collagen-I, and collagen-III in each group (n = 6 mice per group). c–k The data were analyzed by one-way ANOVA. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01 vs. SHAM, ^#p < 0.05 vs. TAC; ns, not significant. In the bar graphs, the data are presented as the mean ± SEM