Fig. 4

Periostin overexpression in SSc cardiac tissue. A Immunohistochemistry in paraffin embedded heart tissue from SSc patients and controls; note ASMA expression in blue restricted to capillaries and small blood vessels in both SSc and control hearts, with enhanced interstitial collagen deposition in SSc (brown); n = 2 each, representative sections shown. B Immunofluorescence staining for periostin (red) and DAPI (nucleus, blue) in control and SSc hearts, n = 4 each, representative sections shown. C Immunofluorescence staining for periostin (green) and collagen type I (red) in control and SSc hearts. Nuclei were stained with DAPI (blue). Arrowheads indicate periostin staining that colocalized with collagen type I, and arrows show isolated periostin staining. n = 2 each, representative sections shown. Control-1: F, 68 years old (y.o.); Control-2: F, 70 y.o.; Control-3: M, 40 y.o.; control-4: F, 46 y.o.; SSc-1: M, 56 y.o.; SSc-2: F, 80 y.o.; SSc-3 and 4: information not available