Cardiac tissues from dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) patients vs. Cardiac tissues from controls

Microarray analysis of cardiac tissue from patients presenting dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM)  versus healthy hearts.

Experiments were performed with left ventricular samples from ex-planted human hearts from patients with DCM undergoing cardiac transplantation (n=12). Non-diseased donor hearts (n=5) were used as control samples. The hearts were initially considered for transplantation, but were subsequently deemed unsuitable for transplantation either because of blood type or size incompatibility. The cause of death was cerebrovascular or motor vehicle accident. All donors had normal LV function and had no history of myocardial disease or active infection at the time of transplantation.  Transmural samples were taken from near the apex of the left ventricle (LV). 

Samples from patients with ischemic heart disease were also tested in this experiment but were not included in the LifeMap analysis.