S monovette plasma edta tubes

At the end of the 10-month study period, blood was drawn by heart puncture under deep isoflurane anaesthesia (Forane, Abbott, Austria). Also for the baseline animals, the blood was collected only once at the time of sacrification. Blood and plasma were collected using S-Monovette Serum-Gel tubes and S-Monovette Plasma-EDTA tubes (Sarstedt, Nümbrecht, Germany), respectively. Samples were centrifuged at 2000 g for 12 min at room temperature, aliquoted and stored at − 80 °C until the analysis. Blood collections and consequently serum analyses were performed in a non-fasting state.

At the end of the 10-months study protocol, blood was drawn by heart puncture under deep isoflurane anesthesia (Forane, Abbott, Austria). Blood and plasma were collected using S-Monovette Serum-Gel tubes and S-Monovette Plasma-EDTA tubes (Sarstedt, Nümbrecht, Germany), respectively. Blood collection was performed in a non-fasting state. From 10 animals per group, the base and mid-ventricular portion of the myocardium were formalin-fixed for 24 h and stored in EtOH at 4°C until analysis. The samples have been rehydrated overnight in PBS at 4°C before sectioning. The apical portion of the ventricles was snap frozen from all animals and stored at −80°C for subsequent molecular analyses.