Figure 4

Denervation-induced atrophy. Six- to eight-week-old male C57BL/6 N mice were subjected to surgery. The sciatic nerve of the left hindlimb was dissected (denervated, n =6), and a sham procedure was performed at the right side (innervated, n =6), as indicated. (A) The weights of gastrocnemius/plantaris and tibialis anterior muscles normalized to tibia length were determined at baseline (-) and after 7 days, 14 days and 21 days. Data are presented as mean ± SEM. **P <0.05. Quantitative RT-PCR analyses of Atrogin1 (B) and MuRF1 (C) expression and immunoblotting of proteins using anti-MuRF1 antibody (D) in gastrocnemius/plantaris and tibialis anterior muscles at 7 days, 14 days and 21 days after surgery, as indicated. Glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase (Gapdh) expression and protein content were used as reference values, and data shown are the fold changes of the respective innervated sites. Data are presented as mean ± SEM. **P <0.01, *P <0.05. MuRF1, Muscle RING (really interesting new gene) finger-containing protein 1.