Fig. 8
Flumethasone treatment inhibits matrix remodelling after cryoinjury and heart regeneration. (a-e) Representative sections of cryoinjured hearts at 30 dpci labelled with AFOG staining, which detects collagen in blue (blue arrow), fibrin-like matrix in red (red arrows) and muscle in orange, after 30 days of treatment with 0.05% DMSO and 5 µM flumethasone. The newly formed myocardium is indicated by black arrows. (f) Quantification of heart regeneration according to the criteria described in Materials and methods. (g) Representative example of a heart at 4 dpci labelled with AFOG staining. The cryoinjured zone in the heart at 4 dpci contains a provisional fibrotic matrix (red), which displays a similarity to the matrix of flumethasone-treated hearts at 30 dpci. (n ≥ 10; ***p < 0.001, Fisher′s exact test).