Figure 3.

Effects of pharmacologic reprogramming drug cocktail (9C) and vitamin E nicotinate on cardiac fibrosis. Sprague-Dawley rats were subcultaneously injected with SU5416 (20 mg/kg body weight) and subjected to chronic hypoxia at 10% O₂ for 3 weeks and then maintained in normoxia to promote pulmonary hypertension-induced right ventricular fibrosis [32]. Eight weeks after the injection of SU5416, a combination of cell reprogramming drugs (9C) as described by Cao et al. [13] was injected intraperitoneally with or without vitamin E nicotinate twice over the one-week period. Right ventricular tissues were fixed in buffered formalin, embedded in paraffin, and subjected to Masson’s trichrome staining. Blue color indicates fibrosis. (A) Healthy control; (B) Heart failure; (C) Heart failure + reprogramming cocktail (9C); (D) Heart failure + reprogramming cocktail (9C) + vitamin E nicotinate. Magnification 400×.