Fig. 4

Masson’s trichrome staining of the ventricles in the chronic heart failure rats. a Representative biventricular sections of extensive myocardial infraction (MI) in the CST and CDT groups, scale bar: 300 µm. a-1 Shown are infarct size (CST, n = 13; CDT, n = 14). a-2 Biventricular weight normalized by body weight (CST, n = 13; CDT, n = 14). b Cardiac fibrosis, scale bar: 50 µm. b-1 Myocardial interstitial fibrosis index in non-infarcted area (CST, n = 5, 20 fields; CDT, n = 7, 28 fields; each point is the mean value of 4 fields per animal). c Perivascular fibrosis, scale bar: 50 µm. c-1 Perivascular fibrosis index in remote area (CST, n = 5, 14 fields; CDT, n = 5, 11 fields; each point is the mean value of 2–3 fields per animal). Values are means ± SEM. NS not significant, *P < 0.05 in CDT vs. CST by unpaired Student’s t-test