Fig 2: Graded TAC results in graded left ventricular hypertrophy and expression of pro-hypertrophy genes. Echocardiography-derived indices for (a) calculated left ventricular (LV) mass normalized to body weight, (b) LV posterior wall thickness, (c) interventricular septal wall thickness and (d) LV volume during diastole. (e–f) Excised tissue weights normalized to tibia length for left ventricle and left and right atria. (g) Representative LV sections stained with wheat germ agglutinin (WGA - green) and DAPI (blue) for assessment of cardiomyocyte area. Scale = 100 µm). (h) Quantification of cardiomyocyte area. (i–m) Quantitative RT-PCR for expression of atrial natriuretic peptide (Nppa), brain natriuretic peptide (Nppb), Myosin heavy chain-a (Myh6) and myosin heavy chain-ß (Myh7), respectively in apical LV tissue. (m) Ratio of Myh6/Myh7 gene expression. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01 and ***P < 0.001 vs. sham, †P < 0.05, ††P < 0.01 and †††P < 0.001 vs. 25G TAC, ‡‡P < 0.01 vs. 26G TAC by 2-way repeated measures ANOVA (a–d; n = 10–11) or 1-way ANOVA (e–m; n = 6–8) with Tukey’s post-test. Coloured symbols (A–C) indicate P < 0.05 vs. sham at the time point indicated.

Fig 3: Drp1 S-sulfhydration protected against TAC-induced heart failureA-I, Purified Drp1 WT and Drp1 C607A adenovirus (1 × 109 opu) were respectively administered by direct injection to the LV free wall (three sites, 25 µl/site) of mice. TAC surgery and NaHS (60 µmol/kg/day) intraperitoneal injection were performed 5 days after injection. Western blotting images and summarized data showing Drp1 S-sulfhydration and S-nitrosylation levels after pressure overload generated by TAC for 4 weeks (A). n = 6. Electron microscopic images and quantification of mitochondrion size in the indicated hearts of mice after pressure overload generated by TAC for 4 weeks (B). Scale bar = 2 µm n = 687–907 mitochondria from 5 mice for each group. The ATP level measurements in the heart after pressure overload generated by TAC for 4 weeks (C). n = 6. Left ventricular ejection fraction (D), fraction shortening (E) and left ventricular end-diastolic volume (F) were measured by echocardiography after pressure overload generated by TAC for 4 weeks. n = 6. Quantification of heart weight (HW) over tibia length (TL) ratio in mice after pressure overload generated by TAC for 4 weeks (G). n = 6. qRT-PCR analyses of BNP genes in the heart after pressure overload generated by TAC for 4 weeks. The expression was normalized to 18S rRNA and reported as fold change over WT (H). Western blotting images of Bcl-2, Bax and cleaved caspase 9 protein levels in the indicated hearts of mice after pressure overload generated by TAC for 4 weeks (I). *: p < 0.05, **: p < 0.01.