Fig. 6. Expression of Cx431 gap junctions in the epicardium of the fetal mouse heart. (A,B) Immunostaining shows Cx431 expression in the compact layer of the ventricular myocardium (myocard), in the ventricular trabeculae (trab) and in the epicardium (white arrows) in the interventricular sulcus of an E12.5 mouse heart. Cx431 expression is depicted in purple. The green background is autofluorescence recorded in the FITC (green) channel to delineate the myocardium and epicardium. Cx431 expression in the epicardium is comparable with that of the compact myocardium, while expression in the trabeculae is much higher. Cx431 expression in the ventricular myocardium and epicardium (white arrows) is shown at higher magnification in B. (C,D). Immunostaining with a cytokeratin antibody revealed abundant cytokeratin (blue) expression in the epicardium of Cx431^+/– (C) and Cx431^–/– (D) hearts.

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