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Fig. 3 | Skeletal Muscle

Fig. 3

From: A GDF11/myostatin inhibitor, GDF11 propeptide-Fc, increases skeletal muscle mass and improves muscle strength in dystrophic mdx mice

Fig. 3

GDF11PRO-Fc induces localized skeletal muscle hypertrophy after intramuscular gene delivery. 8-week-old C57BL/6J mice were treated with AAV9-GDF11PRO-Fc (n = 5) or vehicle (n = 5) via unilateral intramuscular injection into the right-side hindlimb. The contralateral left-side hindlimb was not treated. Mice were euthanized 10 weeks post-treatment. a Average bodyweight over time. b Hindlimb grip strength normalized to bodyweight at 10 weeks post-treatment. Shown are measurements from a single hindlimb and both hindlimbs. c Representative gross hindlimb musculature. The injected hindlimb is designated with a black arrow. d Wet tissue weight of tibialis anterior and gastrocnemius. e Representative immunofluorescence images of injected right-side gastrocnemius cross-sections stained with AlexaFluor-488-conjugated WGA to visualize myofibers. Scale bars represent 100 μm. f Average myofiber cross-section area in the injected right-side gastrocnemius. g Myofiber MFD distribution in the injected right-side gastrocnemius. A minimum of 500 myofibers were measured per mouse. h Western blot identification of GDF11PRO-Fc in tissue lysates from injected right-side gastrocnemius and liver samples of treated mice. GDF11PRO-Fc was not detectable in vehicle-treated mice. Equal protein loading was verified by Ponceau S staining and GAPDH was used as a loading control. All error bars represent mean ± SEM. *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; n.s. not significant; compared to vehicle-treated control. TA tibialis anterior, Gas gastrocnemius

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