Figure 2.

Growth hormone secretagogue receptor (GHSR) and ghrelin fluorescence intensity in human cardiac tissue. (A) Representative confocal images of [Dpr³(n-octanoyl),Lys¹⁹(sulfo-Cy5)]ghrelin(1-19; Cy5-ghrelin(1-19); (red) and ghrelin (green) in diseased control left ventricle (LV; top), diseased LV (middle), and diseased left atrium (LA; bottom). DAPI (blue) indicates nuclear localization in cardiomyocytes. Graphs indicate quantification of integrated densities using linear regression between Cy5-ghrelin(1-19) and ghrelin. (B) In control tissue, there was no correlation between Cy5-ghrelin(1-19) and ghrelin (P = not significant [ns]; n = 10). (C) Linear regression between Cy5-ghrelin(1-19) and ghrelin (r = 0.3995; P = 0.0318) in the entire patient cohort (n = 29), where each dot represents 1 patient sample. (D) Regional analysis showed a significant linear regression of Cy5-ghrelin(1-19) and ghrelin in the LA (r = 0.4859; P = 0.0299; n = 20) but not the LV (P = ns; n = 9).