Fig. 4.

Cardiac PAI-1 expression is associated with increased prevalence of M2 macrophages. a, c Representative photomicrographs from cardiac sections of patients with DCM, DCMi low-grade inflammation (DCMi-low) and DCMi-high grade inflammation (DCMi-high), double immunostained against CD14/CD68 (green/red) and CD16/CD68 (green/red) (a), or CD86/CD68 (green/red) and CD163/CD68 (green/red) (c), respectively. Double positive cells are depicted in yellow and indicate presence of M1 (CD68⁺ CD14⁺ and CD68⁺ CD86⁺) or M2 (CD68⁺ CD16⁺ and CD68⁺ CD163⁺) macrophages. Magnification: ×400. Scale bar: 50 µm. b, d M1 to M2 ratio was calculated from the total number of M1 (CD68⁺ CD14⁺ (b) or CD68⁺ CD86⁺ (d) double positive cells) and M2 (CD68⁺ CD16⁺ (b) or CD68⁺ CD163⁺ (d) double positive cells) macrophages (n = 6–11 patients per group). Data are represented as mean ± SEM. *p ≤ 0.05, **p ≤ 0.01