Figure 3. Endothelial repair genes are expressed in injured human hearts.

(A) Histology of coronary artery and myocardium of human hearts, H&E stain. Top panels show an unutilized donor reference heart. Bottom panels show a transplant heart explant with arterial CAV, recovered at the time of recipient retransplantation. The arterial lumen (black arrows) is occluded in the explant, with prominent myofibroblasts (white arrows) and matrix in the explant intima. The reference arteries show atherosclerotic cholesterol accumulation (arrowheads). Scale bars: 50 μm (left panels), 200 μm (right panels). (B) Quantitation of the intima area as a fraction of the area within the internal elastic lamina of epicardial coronary arteries among unutilized donor and explant hearts (n = 4 biological replicates). (C) Expression of endothelial repair genes in coronary artery of reference or explant hearts (n = 6 biological replicates). (D) Expression of endothelial repair genes in myocardium among reference (n = 6 biological replicates) or explant allograft hearts with vasculopathy (n = 6). (E) Expression of endothelial repair genes in myocardium among endomyocardial biopsy specimens of reference (n = 6 biological replicates) or transplant hearts with (n = 9) or without (n = 5) arterial CAV. Mean ± SEM; *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01 by 1-way ANOVA with Bonferroni’s post hoc test.