Animals
Cell lines and plasmids
Cell culture and adenoviral infection
Adenovirus and adeno-associated virus
Kaplan-Meier curves
Reverse transcription qPCR
Antibodies
Western blot analysis
Immunoprecipitation
In vivo ubiquitylation assays
Cardiac hypertrophy models and echocardiography
Histological analysis
Immunofluorescence
TUNEL assay
LDN-57444 administration
Microarray assay
Statistical analysis
The study included three male patients and three age- and gender-matched controls. Samples from patients with HF were obtained from Beijing Anzhen Hospital of the Capital University of Medical Sciences at the time of cardiac transplantation. Normal hearts (nonfailing hearts as controls) were obtained from donors with normal cardiac contractile function based on echocardiography of those who had died from motor vehicle accidents. The three male donors had a median age of 48 years. The three HF patients (male) had a median age of 46 years, and their average EF% was 20 ± 5%. The study was performed in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and approved by the Institutional Review Board of Beijing Anzhen Hospital, Capital Medical University. Patients provided written consent. Heart tissues were fixed in neutral buffered formalin solution, embedded in paraffin, and then cut into 5-μm serial sections. Immunohistochemistry staining was performed as described previously (44). Monoclonal antibody UCHL1 (1:100 dilution) and BNP (1:100 dilution) were used as primary antibodies.