Fig. 1.

Gata4 and Gata6 show the highest expression among GATA family members in cardiac fibroblasts. a, b Quantification of Gata-factor RNA expression levels in isolated cardiac fibroblasts from RNA-sequencing [shown as counts per million reads (CPM, a)] and quantitative real-time-PCR (b) demonstrates that Gata4 and Gata6 are the highest expressed GATA family transcription factors in cardiac fibroblasts. RNA expression levels are normalized to Rpl7 (b). c Quantitative real-time-PCR of cell-type specific marker genes shows high purity of isolated cardiomyocytes (CM), fibroblasts (FB) and endothelial cells (EC) from adult mouse hearts. d Representative immunofluorescence images from transverse mouse heart sections show GATA-4 (upper images, green) and GATA-6 (lower images, green) in cardiac fibroblasts (stained with PDGFRα, red), nuclei are stained with DAPI (blue). Arrows indicate GATA-4 or GATA-6 positive cardiac fibroblasts, arrowheads indicate GATA-4 or GATA-6 positive cardiomyocytes. Scale bar 20 µm. e Quantitative real-time-PCR shows RNA expression level of Gata4 and Gata6 in FB compared to CM and EC. RNA expression levels are normalized to Gapdh (c, e). Data are shown as mean ± SD. Two-way ANOVA with Sidak’s multiple-comparisons test was used to test for significant differences. n.s. indicates no statistical significance between groups, ****p < 0.0001