Fig. 4

Effects of paroxetine on heart fibrosis. HYP (A) and TGF-β1 (B) as indicators of cardiac fibrosis. C Cardiac muscle with Masson’s trichrome staining: no fibrosis was seen in the normal control group, and moderate fibrosis (highlighted by blue stain) was seen in the MI group (20X power field). All data are expressed as means ± SEM of 6 animals per group. Differences between groups were determined using a one-way ANOVA followed by Dunnett’s post hoc test. The total number of biological and technical replicates is 6 per group. Statistically significant changes compared to the untreated MI rats are indicated with * (P < 0.05), ** (P < 0.01), *** (P < 0.001). Abbreviations C control, MI untreated myocardial infarction, P + MI myocardial infarction pre-treated with paroxetine, M + MI myocardial infarction pre-treated with metoprolol, R + MI myocardial infarction pre-treated with irbesartan