Figure 1

Morphological and histopathological changes in infarcted area. Upper panel) Identification of infarct area (IA) and infarct wall thickness at papillary level of left ventricle by TTC stain (n = 6 in each group). A) Triphenyltetrazolium chloride (TTC) (2.0%) staining for identifying IA (green dotted line). B) Significantly larger IA at basal, middle, and apical levels in acute myocardial infarction (AMI) plus normal saline group than in AMI plus tacrolimus therapy group. C) The wall thickness was significantly higher in AMI + tacrolimus than AMI group. * vs. †, p = 0.036. Lower panel) The results of H. & E. stain (100x) of the IA at middle level of left ventricle by day 14 after AMI induction (n = 6). D to F) H. & E. stain showing the IA (yellow arrows) was remarkably larger in MI-only than in MI-Tac group. G) * vs. other groups, P < 0.0001. All statistical analyses using one-way ANOVA, followed by Tukey’s multiple comparison procedure. Symbols (*, †, ‡) indicate significance (at 0.05 level). The Scale bars in right lower corner represent 100 μm. HPF, high-power field.