Intramyocardial injection with Adeno-Cre in HSPB7^Flox/Flox mice.

Confocal micrographs of the cardiac muscle of the HSPB7^Flox/Flox mice 8 days after intramyocardial injection with Adeno-Cre virus. n = 3 per group. The heart sections were co-immunostained with antibody against HSPB7 (red) and specific antibodies (green) were used to identify the distributions of intercalated disc components: desmoplakin (A) and N-cadherin (B). (A) In HSPB7^Flox/Flox hearts, desmoplakin was distributed throughout the cytoplasm (asterisk in lower panel) at the HSPB7 depleted region compared with the control region (upper panel). (B) N-cadherin exhibited partial misexpression at the HSPB7 depleted region (asterisk in lower panel) compared with the control region (upper panel). The nucleus was visualized through Hoechst 33342 staining (blue). Scale bar: 10 μm.