Cardiac Shock Wave Therapy Improves Ventricular Function by Relieving Fibrosis Through PI3K/Akt Signaling Pathway: Evidence From a Rat Model of Post-infarction Heart Failure

Figure 1. CSWT improves cardiac functions and reduced fibrosis in rats with post-AMI HF. (A) The cardiac weight, serum levels of BNP and NT-pro BNP and gross view of whole hearts in study groups; (B) Representative M-mode images by echocardiography of rats in study group; (C) Fold changes in CD34 and αSMA mRNA levels determined by RT-PCR in study groups; (D) The positive rates of CD34 and αSMA in study groups using Immunochemistry analyses; scale bar, 100 μm; (E) Representative images of Masson's trichrome staining and quantification for fibrosis of rat hearts from each group; scale bar, 100 μm; (F) Representative photomicrographs of immnunofluorescence for the detection of CD34/αSMA and CD34/Procollage-I. Red fluorescence shows αSMA or Procollage-I expression. Green fluorescence shows CD34 expression. Blue fluorescence shows nuclei of total cardiomyocytes; scale bar, 50 μm. Values are expressed as mean ± S.E.M (n = 5). One-way ANOVA test was applied for determining the significance of data. *p < 0.05. CSWT, cardiac shock wave therapy; AMI, acute myocardial infarction; HF, heart failure; S.E.M, standard error of means.

Figure 2. CSWT led to increased PI3K/AKT expression levels. (A) The positive rates of p-P13K and p-Akt in cardiocytes of rats in study group using Immunochemistry analyses; scale bar, 100 μm; (B) Relative protein expressions of PI3K, Akt, p-PI3K and p-Akt in cardiocytes of rats in study group using Western blot analyses. Values are expressed as mean ± S.E.M (n = 5). One-way ANOVA test was applied for determining the significance of data. *p < 0.05. CSWT, cardiac shock wave therapy; AMI, acute myocardial infarction; HF, heart failure; S.E.M, standard error of means.

Figure 3. The inhibition of PI3K/Akt pathway abolished the cardiac function improvement and anti-fibrosis effects of CSWT. (A) The cardiac weight, serum levels of BNP and NT-pro BNP and gross view of whole hearts in study groups; (B) Representative M-mode images by echocardiography of rats in study group; (C) Fold changes in CD34 and αSMA mRNA levels determined by RT-PCR in study groups; (D) The positive rates of CD34 and αSMA in study groups using Immunochemistry analyses; scale bar, 100 μm; (E) Representative images of Masson's trichrome staining and quantification for fibrosis in cardiomyocytes of rats in study group; scale bar, 100 μm; (F) The positive rates of p-P13K and p-Akt in cardiomyocytes of rats in study group using Immunochemistry analyses; scale bar, 100 μm; (G) Representative photomicrographs of immnunofluorescence for the detection of CD34/αSMA and CD34/Procollage-I. Red fluorescence shows αSMA or Procollage-I expression. Green fluorescence shows CD34 expression. Blue fluorescence shows nuclei of total cardiomyocytes; scale bar, 50 μm. Values are expressed as mean ± S.E.M (n = 5). One-way ANOVA test was applied for determining the significance of data. *p < 0.05. CSWT,…