Figure 2.

MMP inhibitors ameliorate cardiac remodelling and fibrosis in DXR cardiotoxicity. (A–D) Haematoxylin and eosin stained sections of the left ventricular free wall from control, DXR, DXR + Doxy, and DXR + ONO groups (representative of n = 5 hearts per group). Doxy and ONO attenuated DXR-induced cardiomyocyte dropout (white arrows) and crowding of the cardiomyocytes. The myocardium of DXR mice exhibited increased nuclear size of the cardiomyocytes when compared to control. DXR + Doxy and DXR + ONO hearts show an attenuation in nuclear size compared to DXR hearts. (E–H) Fibrosis of the left ventricular free wall was evaluated by staining collagen with picrosirius red using polarized light microscopy. Scale bar = 50 µm. (I) Doxy or ONO prevented DXR-induced left ventricular interstitial fibrosis (n = 5). *P < 0.05 by one-way ANOVA followed by the Sidak’s post hoc test.