Fig. 2: JQ1 treatment leads to morphological improvements in mdx mice.

a Hematoxylin/Eosin staining of TA muscles from JQ1- and vehicle-treated mdx mice. JQ1 was chronically administered for two weeks. Scale bar: 50 µm. b JQ1 treatment increases the number of intact fibers in mdx TAs. Data are expressed as the mean ± SD, n = 3 animals, *P < 0.05 and **P < 0.01 was determined by using unpaired two-sided t-test. Total fibers and percentage of peripheral (n = 15 sections examined from n = 3 animals for each experimental group) and centrally nucleated (n = 6 sections examined from n = 3 animals for each experimental group) fibers per area were evaluated from Hematoxylin/Eosin staining of TA muscles (n = 3 for each experimental group). c JQ1 treatment strongly decreases the number of damaged myofibers, as observed by the decreased uptake of Evans blue dye from TA mdx muscles (n = 4 for each experimental group). Scale bar: 50 µm. ***denotes P < 0.001 and was determined by 1 way-Anova followed by Tukey’s post hoc test. d Immunoblot showing pro-Caspase-3 and cleaved Caspase-3 in TAs from control, vehicle-, and JQ1-treated mice. Right panel: quantification of band intensity was performed with ImageJ. Data are expressed as the mean ± SD, n = 7 animals for mdx groups, n = 3 animals for WT. **P < 0.01 and ***P < 0.001 were determined by using one-way ANOVA followed by Tukey’s post hoc test. a indicates statistical significance compared to Control group; b indicates statistical significance compared to the mdx mice animal group. e SDH staining from muscle deep region of TAs, from control, vehicle- and JQ1-treated mice. Scale bar: 50 µm. Right panel: quantification of SDH staining intensity. Data are expressed as the mean ± SD, n = 4 animals per group. a and b as defined in (d). *Denotes P < 0.05 and was determined by 1 way-Anova followed by Tukey’s post hoc test.