Chronic pressure overload-induced alterations in Cx43 localization.

(A) Representative immunofluorescence staining of left ventricular cryosections prepared from WT and CYP2J2-TG mice 4 weeks after TAC surgery. The sections were co-stained for detecting Cx43 (green fluorescent signal) and N-cadherin (red). Cx43 and N-cadherin are colocalized (yellow) to the intercalated disks (indicated by white arrows). This normal Cx43 localization was largely preserved in CYP2J2-TG mice, whereas WT mice featured TAC- induced redistribution of Cx43 to the cytoplasm and lateral borders of the cardiomyocytes (pink arrows). Nuclei were stained with DAPI (blue). Scale bar: 50 µm. (B) Quantitative analysis of Cx43 and N-cadherin colocalization. Results represent mean±SEM based on the analysis of 5 sections per heart and 4–6 animals per group; ANOVA, Post-Hoc Tukey; *p<0.05 vs. WT-Sham; ^‡p<0.05 vs. WT-TAC.