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Figure 1 Comparison of left ventricular procaspase-9, activated caspase-9 and caspase-9S expression in patients with end-stage heart failure with nonfailing donor hearts. The messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) expression of caspase-9S was downregulated and the ratio of caspase-9S/procaspase-9 was decreased in patients with heart failure (a). Western blot analyses of procaspase-9, activated caspase-9 and caspase-9S protein in failing left ventricles, as compared with donor ventricles (b), illustrate increases of procaspase-9 by 25% and activated caspase-9 by 65% and an inverse relationship for caspase-9S, with no detection of caspase-9S in the failing myocardium (c). (*)p < 0.1; **p < 0.01; ***p < 0.001.