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. 2021 Sep 20;16(9):e0257280. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0257280

Fig 4. Chronic colitis induces marked changes in protein expression in the adult heart and blood.

Fig 4

(A) Expression levels of proteins indicated in the tissue lysates of myocardium were significantly altered by DSS-induced chronic colitis. Western blot was performed to detect protein levels. Alpha-actin served as control. Cl’d Casp, cleaved Caspase. (B) Arbitrary optical density units of the targeting proteins were normalized vs. α-Actin and presented as fold change. (C) Immunostaining of COL3A1 in heart sections showing COL3A1 accumulation in DSS rats. (D) TUNEL staining of rat heart sections. Both cytoplasmic (E) and nuclear (F) BDNF protein levels in the heart were significantly decreased by DSS. BDNF protein levels in the extracts were assessed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). (G) BDNF levels in the serum was also dramatically downregulated by chronic colitis. (H) DSS colitis suppressed BDNF mRNA in the adult heart, which was quantitated by RT-qPCR with Gapdh as endogenous control. n = 8. *p<0.05 vs. control (Ctl). BDNF protein levels in the serum (I) and mRNA expression in the heart (J) were also significantly downregulated by TNBS-induced colitis. n = 6. *p<0.05 vs. control (Ctl).