I/R Injury (infarct size and apoptosis) after 30-min ischemia and 120-min reperfusion.

<p>Infarct size (IS): the amount of necrotic tissue is expressed as percentage of the left ventricle (% IS/LV), which is considered the risk area. Panel A: effects of CST-Post in normotensive (WKY) or hypertensive (SHR) hearts. Panel B: effects of CST-Post in hypertensive (SHR) heart in the presence of antagonists. TUNEL analysis: the apoptotic index of the cardiac muscle is in panel C. Tunel positive cardiomyocyte nuclei are shown by red arrows in panel D (WKY_Sham), panel E (SHR_Sham), panel F (SHR_I/R), and panel G (SHR_CST-Post). Negative control (panel H) is obtained by using the same protocol without TdT enzyme. Immunohistochemical localization of connexin 43 (green arrows) in the ventricular sections of SHR_Sham (panel I), SHR_I/R (panel L), and SHR_CST-Post (panel M). **p<0.01, *p<0.05. Two way ANOVA, (n = 6 for each group).