Fig. 3

Effect of BI-9740 (BI) on cathepsin C (CatC) and myeloperoxidase (MPO) expression in grafts after heart transplantation (HTX). Representative images of A CatC (× 200, scale bar: 200 µm) and B MPO (× 400, scale bar: 100 µm) immunostaining followed by quantification based on the percentage of CatC-positive cells over the total cell count (control: 56 pictures from 7 rats; HTX: 80 pictures from 10 rats; HTX + BI: 76 pictures from 10 rats) and the total number of MPO-positive cells in the tissue section (control: 47 pictures from 6 rats; HTX: 72 pictures from 9 rats; HTX + BI: 88 pictures from 11 rats). The samples were assessed by two examiners who were blinded to the experimental groups. The evaluation was carried out on 4–8 randomly selected non-overlapping fields within each rat’s myocardial tissue. Values are expressed as mean ± SEM and correspond to the mean of all pictures. *p < 0.05 vs. control, ^#p < 0.05 vs HTX