Fig. 3.

Effect of hPCSK9 incubation on cell shortening of cardiomyocytes. Serum-free cultured adult rat ventricular cardiomyocytes were incubated for 24 h with supernatants derived from HepG2 cells that have been infected with hPCSK9 or LacZ for 72 h. a PCSK9 concentration in supernatant of HepG2 cells infected with LacZ or PCSK9 was determined by ELISA (n = 4). b Load free cell shortening is expressed as ΔL/L (%), (c) contraction velocity (µm/s) (d) and relaxation velocity (µm/s) of 160 (LacZ) and 180 (PCSK9) cells (14 independent experiments with intraassay variability of p > 0.05). Cells were paced at 2 Hz. Statistical analysis was performed by Mann–Whitney test. *p ≤ 0.05. Data are mean ± SD