Fig. 7
The effect of denervation on mitochondrial ROS production evaluated by MitoSOX Red. Muscle fibers were loaded with the mitochondrial superoxide indicator, MitoSOX Red. Panels a1 and a2 are the representative images of sham muscle fibers in the absence and presence of 10 μM Ru360, which inhibits the mitochondrial Ca2+ uptake through the mitochondrial uniporter. Note that Ru360 has no significant effect on mitochondrial superoxide production level. Panel a3 is the representative image of denervated muscle fibers. Panels a4 and a5 are the representative images of denervated muscle fibers received the electric field stimulation in the absence and presence of 10 μM Ru360. b Quantification of the relative MitoSOX Red fluorescence intensity at those different experimental conditions. Note that the denervated muscle fibers show enhanced MitoSOX Red fluorescence intensity (a3), while the electric field stimulation reduced the denervation-induced increase in MitoSOX Red intensity (a4), and Ru360 significantly blocked the effect of the field stimulation on the denervated muscle fiber (a5) (n = 5–11, *p < 0.05). Bar, 20 μm