Figure 4
Muscle atrophy was reduced by ISP treatment.
(a) Cross (left column) and longitudinal sections (right column) of biceps with H&E staining. Vehicle biceps exhibited more severe muscle atrophy, reflected by the shrunken sarcoplasm and presence of abundant fibroblast nuclei (white arrow). By contrast, ISP biceps with clear myocyte nucleus (white arrowhead) displayed less extent of fibrosis. (b) Distribution of muscle fiber diameter. Minimum, 1st quartile, median, 3rd quartile and maximum data points were plotted in the graph. 50% of contralateral and ISP muscle fibers had diameters bigger than 24 μm, while only 19% of vehicle muscle fibers showed the comparable diameters. (**p < 0.01, ns: not significant, z test, n = 6) (c) Extent of fibrosis was expressed as the ratio of fibroblast nuclei number in the ipsilateral biceps to that on the contralateral side. ISP treatment significantly reduced fibrosis. (Data presented as mean ± SEM, ***p < 0.001, student’s t test, n = 4; Scale bar: 50 μm in (a)).
