FIGURE 1.
Timeline for the in vivo experiments. (A) Angiotensin II‐induced hypertension. Rats were implanted with osmotic minipumps loaded with AngII (33.3 µg/kg/h) and adenoviral constructs overexpressing GATA4 or GATA4‐S105A (1 × 109 pfu and 2 × 109 pfu, respectively, in 100 µL) or dose‐matched LacZ adenoviral constructs were injected into the LV anterior free wall, generating four adenovirus treatment groups followed for 7 and 14 d. (b) Myocardial infarction. LAD ligation or a sham intervention was performed in rats at day 0, followed by injection of adenoviral constructs overexpressing GATA4‐S105A (2 × 109 pfu in 100 µL) or dose‐matched LacZ adenoviral constructs within the same surgical procedure. Due to different virus dose, the control LacZ groups are not comparable to each other. The groups were studied at 3, 7 or 14 d. At the end of experiments, the cardiac function and structure were analysed by echocardiography and the hearts were excised and processed for further histological and biochemical analyses