Figure 3
From: Post-natal induction of PGC-1α protects against severe muscle dystrophy independently of utrophin
Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma coactivator (PGC)-1α and PGC-1β improve muscle function in exercising dystrophin-deficient (mdx) mice. (A) Ten-week-old control (wild-type; WT), mdx, mdx mice with transgenic overexpression of PGC-1α in muscle cells (mdx/MCK-PGC-1α), or mdx mice with transgenic over-expression of PGC-1β in muscle cells (mdx/MCK-PGC-1β) (n = 5 each group) were run for 1 hour or until exhaustion on a treadmill at a 15° downhill angle with steadily increasing speed as described in the methods (1st run). This exercise protocol was repeated after a 24 hour resting period (2nd run). Bars depict average running time. (B) Two hours after the first run, blood was drawn from mice by submandibular bleeding. Serum creatine kinase was determined (1st run). Two hours after the second run, mice were sacked and blood was drawn. Serum creatine kinase was determined (2nd run). (C) Evans Blue was injected intraperitoneally 16 hours before sacking and histological sections from gastrocnemius were analyzed by fluorescence microscopy. Error bars represent SEM. *P < 0.05.