Fig. 7

Intramyocardial SFN-F-EXOs reduces cardiomyocytes hypertrophy while it does not affect capillary density in the LV border zone of infarcted rat heart. F-EXOs (1*10¹² particles in 100 μL PBS) (n = 5) or SFN-F-EXOs (1*10¹² particles in 100 μL PBS) (n = 5) or PBS (vehicle, 100 μL) (n = 7) was injected into the myocardium of the left ventricular (LV) region bordering the infarct zone of infarcted rat heart. At 28 days after myocardial infarction (MI), heart was explanted, fixed (10% formalin) and paraffin embedded. A Serial sections of 5 μm thickness were stained with a mouse anti- α-sarcomeric actinin (SA) antibody and DAPI. Representative images of stained LV infarct border zone are shown for each experimental group. For each heart, five sections of LV infarct border zone for each heart were analyzed. Cross-sectional cell area was measured manually by ImageJ. Values shown in the graphs represent the mean cell surface area ± SEM. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01. B Serial sections of 5 μm thickness were stained with Wheat Germ Agglutinin to measure capillary density. Fluorescent signal was detected by fluorescent microscopy (10X magnification); representative images are shown. Capillary density is expressed as capillary number (circular blue structures)/mm2 and represented in the graph as mean ± SEM