Skip to main content
Fig. 8 | BMC Developmental Biology

Fig. 8

From: Muscleblind-like 1 is required for normal heart valve development in vivo

Fig. 8

Mbnl1 ∆E3/∆E3 heart valves exhibit increased valve pigmentation. a A top view of a 10 month-old adult Mbnl1 ∆E3/∆E3 heart with the major vessels and atrial appendages removed is shown. Pigment can be seen in all four valves of this heart. TC = tricuspid valve, mit = mitral valve, ao = aortic valve, pulm = pulmonary valve. b The accumulation of pigment is readily apparent in a representative high magnification view of the mitral valve on an unstained coronal section of a 10 month-old adult Mbnl1 ∆E3/∆E3 heart. c The percentage of each valve with visible pigment was calculated for wild type (n = 26) and Mbnl1 ∆E3/∆E3 (n = 16) hearts from male and female mice ranging from 2.5 to 10 months old. No differences were observed between the sexes. d The extent of pigmentation was compared for each valve using a scoring system of 0 (no melanin) to 3 (abundant melanin) in the hearts from (c); see Additional file 8: Figure S3 for examples. An asterisk indicates a significant difference from wild type (P ≤ 0.05). e Western blots analysis shows no difference in the expression of melanocyte markers in wild type versus Mbnl1 ∆E3/∆E3 heart valves. Each lane represents a pool of all four valves (tricuspid, mitral, aortic, and pulmonary) from one individual. A representative of two blots (n = 2 or 3 independent samples on each blot from 5–6 month-old males) is shown. Protein integrity and equivalent loading were confirmed by Ponceau S staining (data not shown)

Back to article page