Cardioprotective effects of transduced PKG1α in vivo.

<p>(A) Real-time PCR for sry gene in female rat heart model of acute myocardial infarction at 7 days after sex-mismatched transplantation of ^NullMSCs (group-2) and ^PKG1αMSCs (group-3). Cell survival was significantly higher in ^PKG1αMSCs as compared with the ^NullMSCs group (n = 4/group). (B) TUNEL and GFP double staining on histological sections of rat heart tissue injected with ^NullMSCs (group-2) and ^PKG1αMSCs (group-3). The number of apoptotic transplanted MSCs (TUNEL⁺GFP⁺, red and green) was significantly reduced in group-3 (<i>p</i><0.05 <i>vs</i> group-2). (C) TUNEL(red) combined with desmin immunostaining (green) on histological sections showed less apoptosis in residual myocardium in group-3 compared to group-1 and group-2 (<i>p</i><0.05). (D) Western blot on protein lysate samples of the rat left ventricle showed increased phosphorylation of Akt,GSK3β, and high level of Bcl-2 expression at 3 days after transplantation in group-3 (p<0.05, n = 4/group). (E) Real-time PCR for growth factors expression showed HGF, TGFβ and FGF2 were significantly increased in left ventricle tissue at 3 days after transplantation. (F) Diminished caspase-3 activity was detected in heart tissues in group-3.