Figure 1

IS administration caused skeletal muscle weakness and a tendency toward muscle atrophy in mice after unilateral-nephrectomy. (A) Expression of the endogenous receptor of indoxyl sulfate (IS) and the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (Ahr) was confirmed with electropheresis for PCR products of mouse gastrocnemius (GC) muscle cDNA. PCR products without reverse transcriptase (RT) were loaded as negative controls. The figure was cropped to show regions of interest. Full-length of the gel is shown in the supplementary Fig. 1. (B) Maximal running velocities (Vmax) measured in a treadmill running exhaustion test (left) and grip strengths from the four limbs grip test (right) are shown. Mice underwent unilateal nephrectomies one week prior to treatment with vehicle (VEH) or IS for 7 days. (C) Body weight change ratios before and after 7 days of treatment, and (D) skeletal muscle wet weight/body weight of soleus and GC muscles after one week of treatment are shown. (E) Serum urea nitrogen (UN, left), heart/body weight (middle), and blood hemoglobin (Hb, right) after one week of treatment are shown. N = 5–6 mice per group. Error bars denote SEM. * p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01, N.S.; no significance, bp; base pairs.