Altered focal adhesion regulation correlates with cardiomyopathy in mice expressing constitutively active rac1
J. Clin. Invest. Mark A. Sussman, et al. 105:875 doi:10.1172/JCI8497 [Go to this article.]

Figure 3
Analysis of spontaneous mortality and hypertrophic heart/body weight ratio normalization in the racET population. (Top) Plot of age at death (x-axis) versus number of mice that died (y-axis) for 54 racET mice dead within 3 weeks after birth. Postmortem examination of this population revealed every mouse had dilated cardiomyopathy (see Figure 2). Mortality was evident as early as 7 days after birth, with a high level of mortality present throughout postnatal days 8–13. (Bottom) Plot of age (x-axis) versus heart/body weight ratio (mg/g) for 98 racET mice found to have hypertrophic hearts at time of sacrifice. Range of average ratios for control mice are indicated within the shaded area (ntg). Ntg control heart/body weight ratios are 6.06 ± 0.6 mg/g under 1 month of age and 5.5 ± 0.6mg/g for mice over 1 month of age. Ratios for young racET mice are higher within the first month after birth (7.22 ± 2.15; n = 71) compared with mice over 1 month of age (5.86 ± 0.86; n = 20). This ratio versus ntg controls shifted from statistically significant in mice under 1 month of age (P = 0.015) to insignificance in older mice (P = 0.154) indicating a normalization of heart/body weight ratio as racET mice age. The number of racET mice averaged for each time point is shown at the bottom of the graph.