Evaluation of myocardial cell apoptosis induced by I/R in young and intermediate-aged rat hearts.

<p>A. Left ventricular tissue was lysed and then the caspase3/7 activity was measured as Luminescence signal. B. Caspase-3 processing was evaluated by Western blotting. C. Bax and Bcl-2 protein expression in young and intermediate-aged rat hearts. β-actin were used as loading controls. The bar charts represent quantitative comparisons between the groups. Bax/Bcl-2 ratio calculated from the density analysis. D. Bax and Bcl-2 mRNA expression was evaluated by quantitative real-time PCR. The values were shown as the means± SD, n = 4/group. ^#<i>P</i><0.05, * <i>P</i><0.05, ^##<i>P</i><0.01, * *<i>P</i><0.01.