A–C, protein abundances of XIAP (A), p53 (B) and phospho-p53 (C) in the cytoplasmic fraction were determined by Western blotting. Data are presented as net intensity × resulting band area and expressed in arbitrary units. Results of XIAP, p53 and phospho-p53 were normalized to corresponding β-tubulin signal. D, two sets of representative blots are shown. Con, control; Compr, compressed. E, the mRNA content of p53 was examined by quantatitive RT-PCR. Data are presented as means ± SEM with significant levels set at *P < 0.05, compressed muscle compared to the corresponding control muscle in DMSO and z-VAD-fmk groups. The main effects of compression, inhibitor and interaction (compression x inhibitor) in these animals were analysed using a 2 × 2 ANOVA.