Aims: To examine the relevance and cause of reduced plakoglobin IF in intercalated discs for arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC) and ARVC-like disease in mouse and human.
Methods and results: Normalized semi-quantitative IF measurements were performed in a standardized format in desmoglein 2-mutant mice with an ARVC-like phenotype (n = 6) and in cardiac biopsies from humans with ARVC and non-ARVC heart disease (n = 10). Reduced plakoglobin staining was detectable in ARVC only with one antibody directed against a defined epitope but not with three other antibodies reacting with different epitopes of plakoglobin.
Conclusions: Reduced plakoglobin staining in intercalated discs of heart tissue from human ARVC patients and in a murine ARVC model is caused by alterations in epitope accessibility and not by protein relocalization.
Keywords: Area composita; Armadillo repeat; Desmosome; Wnt signalling; β-catenin.
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