Figure 1.

Study design and experimental protocol. (A): Study design. Mice (n = 66) were included into the SHAM (surgery placebo; n = 18) or the IR (ischemia–reperfusion, n = 48) sub-groups. In the IR group (with coronary artery ligation), injection of saline buffer (Ctrl) or TD peptide (TD) was blinded to the experimenter by assigning an anonymity number to each mouse. Anonymity was lifted after the completion of all steps of follow-up of the IR group (dotted frame) including data analysis, just before the statistical tests. At this step only, each mouse included in the study was assigned to a study group and the “n” number of mice in each group mentioned in blue was determined. Two mice had to be removed from the study (1 TD and 1 Ctrl) at this step since the quality control applied to the body temperature recordings revealed a slight decrease during myocardial infarction (MI). (B): Experimental and treatment protocols. MI was induced by transient coronary artery ligation and reperfusion. Peptide treatment (red arrow) was administered intravenously 5 min before the onset of reperfusion. Blood samples were collected at 24 h, 1, 2, 3 and 6 months post-surgery to assess cardiac Troponin I (cTnI) level. Echocardiographic recordings were performed at 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and a 6 months post-surgery. At the end of the protocol, a histological analysis was performed. For SHAM animals, the protocol was the same except that there was no coronary ligation and no treatment.