Fibromodulin is upregulated in hearts of mice in response to pressure overload.

<p>(A) FMOD mRNA in the left ventricle (LV) of wild-type (WT) mice subjected to aortic banding (AB) for 24 hours (h) -18 weeks (w), compared to sham-operated controls, n sham = 3–10, n AB = 7–10. Ribosomal protein L32 (RPL32) was used as reference gene. (B) Representative immunoblots and (C) quantitative levels of extracellular FMOD (FMODext, ~60kDa) protein in mouse LVs 3w and 16w post-AB or sham operation, n = 5–7. Culture medium of FMOD-expressing HEK293 cells was used as positive control (Pos cntr), see <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0201422#pone.0201422.s001" target="_blank">S1 Fig</a> for details. Coomassie staining was used for loading control. (D and E) Pearson regression analysis of FMOD mRNA and (D) left ventricular weight (LVW)/tibia length, or (E) lung weight (LW)/tibia length in sham- and AB-operated mice, n = 87. (F) FMOD, lumican (LUM), biglycan (BGN) and decorin (DCN) mRNA normalized to RPL32 in LVs of mice 24h-18w post-AB, relative to the average of sham-operated controls, n sham = 3–10, n AB = 7–10. Mouse characteristics are found in <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0201422#pone.0201422.s012" target="_blank">S4 Table</a>. Data are shown as mean±SEM. Statistical differences were tested using an unpaired t-test vs. respective sham-operated controls (A and C), Pearson regression analysis (D and E) and one-way ANOVA with Bonferroni post-hoc test vs. FMOD mRNA (F). *p≤0.05; ** p≤0.01; ***p≤0.005.