Fibroblast Growth Factor-9 Activates c-Kit Progenitor Cells and Enhances Angiogenesis in the Infarcted Diabetic Heart

Figure 1

FGF-9 blunts vessel apoptosis in the diabetic infarcted heart. Representative photomicrographs illustrating vascular apoptosis are depicted in (a) for C57BL/6 (A–L) and db/db (M–X) mice with TUNEL positive nuclei in red (A, E, I, M, Q, and U), SM α-acti cells in green (B, F, J, N, R, and V), total nuclei stained blue with DAPI (C, G, K, O, S, and W), and merged images (D, H, L, P, T, and X). The boxes on the top right panel of (a) are enhanced images from each group to demonstrate the colocalization of TUNEL, SM α-actin, and DAPI within a single vessel. Scale bar = 100 μm. (b) Histogram of quantitative vessels apoptosis in infarcted C57BL/6 and db/db mice. versus sham and versus MI.

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