Fig. 6.

Knockdown of Opa1 with AAV-Opa1 shRNA blunted the cardioprotective effects of Pae in diabetic hearts. (a) Representative blots and quantitative analysis of Opa1 expression. (b-c) Representative pulse-wave Doppler images and quantitative analysis of the E/A ratio. (d) Upper: Representative echocardiography images. Bottom: Representative images of DHE-stained heart tissues. Original magnification × 800. (e-f) Quantitative analysis of echocardiography data including left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) and left ventricular end-systolic diameter (LVESD). (g) Quantitative analysis of DHE staining. (h) Representative images of TUNEL and DAPI staining of the heart tissues. Original magnification × 800. (i) Percentage of apoptotic cells quantified as apoptotic index. (j) Representative images of mitochondrial morphology obtained by transmission electron microscope. Mitochondria are shown in green. Scale bars = 1 μm. Original magnification × 15,000. (k) Mitochondria were classified into three categories based on their size (<0.6 μm², 0.6–1 μm², >1 μm²). (l) Quantification of mean mitochondrial size. (m) Quantification of mitochondrial number per μm². (n) Representative images of mitochondrial cristae obtained by transmission electron microscope. Mitochondria are shown in green. Scale bars = 0.5 μm. Original magnification × 40,000. (o) Quantification of cristae amount per mitochondrial area. DM, diabetes mellitus; Pae, paeonol at a dosage of 300 mg/kg/day. n = 6 for Western blot and DHE experiments (Figure a, g) and n = 8 for animal experiments (Figure b–o). All data are shown as means ± SEM. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01. (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the Web version of this article.)