Fig. 10

Intravenous injection of GDF11, but not GDF8, elicits robust phosphorylation of SMAD2/3 in the mouse myocardium. a, b, c, d Representative western blots (a, b) showing phosphorylated SMAD2 (pSMAD2), total SMAD2/3 (SMAD2/3), and GAPDH and corresponding quantification (c, d) in the mouse myocardium 1 h post tail-vein injection of saline, GDF8, or GDF11. a, c show a direct comparison in the level of pSMAD2 in the myocardium following injection of 0.5 mg/kg GDF8 or GDF11 (n = 3 mice/treatment). b, d show that nearly eightfold more GDF8 than GDF11 is required to achieve a similar pSMAD2 response (saline n = 2 mice; GDF11 = 0.5 mg/kg n = 3 mice; GDF8 n = 1 mouse per dose). Data information: In c, d, data are presented as a ratio of pSMAD2/total SMAD2/3. To obtain this ratio, pSMAD2 or SMAD2/3 was first normalized to GAPDH. The ratio of this quotient was then graphed. Data are presented as the mean ± SEM. *P ≤ 0.05 and ***P ≤ 0.001 (Student’s t test). Ligand sources: PeproTech Cat. no. 120-00 and Cat. no. 120-11