Fig. 3

Comparison of the infarct area in the hearts from young and old mice of both sexes. a Representative heart sections from young male (top-left), old male (bottom-left), young female (top-right), and old female (bottom-right) mice; the hearts were stained with TTC. b The old male mouse hearts had significantly smaller infarcts when compared to the young male hearts. However, the hearts from female mice had similar infarct areas, regardless of age. Values are expressed as the mean ± SEM. Data were analyzed with two-way ANOVA, with age and sex as the main factors. The overall effect of age was statistically significant. The asterisk denotes significantly different from young male (p < 0.05), and the number sign denotes significantly different from young female (p < 0.05); the Holm-Sidak post hoc test was used. Detailed statistical analysis is presented in Additional file 1: Table S1. Young male, n = 4; old male, n = 6; young female, n = 4; old female, n = 5