Contribution of mammalian target of rapamycin in the pathophysiology of cirrhotic cardiomyopathy

Figure 3 Contractile force in response to β-adrenergic stimulation in cirrhotic and control rats treated with normal saline or rapamycin (2 mg/kg). Inotropic responsiveness to β-adrenergic stimulation with isoproterenol in the isolated papillary muscle from cirrhotic and control rats treated with normal saline or rapamycin (2 mg/kg) was analyzed to determine the contractile force (% of basal). The data are expressed as the mean ± SD. Maximal response (R_max) in the CCl₄-induced cirrhotic rats was significantly lower than the other groups. There were no significant differences in EC₅₀ values among the four studied groups. ^fP < 0.001 vs the control group receiving normal saline; ^gP < 0.001 vs the cirrhosis group receiving normal saline; ^aP < 0.05, ^bP < 0.01, ^eP < 0.001 vs the cirrhotic group receiving normal saline in that concentration.